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2013年3月1日

下午四时至六时

中国文化研究所文物馆东翼二楼活动室

蒲慕州教授历史系

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This study investigates the changing meaning of ding-tripod in the cultural memory of ancient China. The example of ding shows how an object of daily use could be invested with all sorts of cultural memories: during the Shang, personal achievement and family prestige were transmitted through the bronze ding and the engravings on it; during the Zhou, ding became the symbol of political authority; during the Han, through the recounting of the stories of the Yellow Emperor’s gaining the divine ding, it was elevated to the status of an auspicious omen that could legitimize the political power as well as personal virtue of the sovereign. Meanwhile, it is worth noticing that the expanded and mythical significance of ding during the Han gradually gave way to the earlier meanings. It was the physical aspects of the bronze ding—heavy and stable, finely decorated and expensively made, and the political implication of ding that were remembered and transmitted to the later eras.