LATE SHANG/EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 12TH-11TH CENTURY BC

The clan sign, reading zhu, depicts a drum on a stand and is topped by a trident-like ornament. The Eastern Han (AD 8-220) palaeography classic Shuowen jiezi interpreted the zhu character as “display musical instrument so that the top can be seen”. Qing (1644-1911) scholar Duan Yucai annotated on this entry explaining that “when the stands of musical instruments are erected, the top parts are exposed and can be seen from a distance,” which refers exactly to the zhu graph. The drum was an important instrument in ceremonies in the Shang and Zhou dynasties. Unlike bronze musical instruments, drums, which were made of wood and animal hides, are virtually impossible to preserve. We know the form of Shang dynasty drums from two bronze models of drums, one is in the Hubei Provincial Museum, illustrated in Hubei Provincial Museum ed., Hubei chutu wenwu jingcui, Beijing, 2006, pp. 66-67, no. 34; the other in the Sumitomo Collection, Kyoto, illustrated in Sen-oku Hakko: Chugoku kodoki hen, Kyoto, 2002, pp. 118-19, no. 142. The Hubei bronze drum is cast with an integral rectangular footed stand and is surmounted by a saddle-like ornament, and the Sumitomo drum is surmounted by a pair of prominent addorsed birds cast in round, the form of both are compatible to the clan sign on the present ding vessel. Bronzes bearing this clan sign are very rare. The earliest record of this clan sign appears on an early Western Zhou bronze you vessel in the Northern Song (960-1279), bronze catalogue Kaogu tu. A bronze fanglei found in the Beijiao in Luoyang city, Henan province also has the zhu clan sign, illustrated in Zhongguo qingtongqi quanji (Compendium of Chinese Bronzes), vol. 5: Western Zhou (1), Beijing, 1996, no. 177. And the third example is a bronze zun vessel formerly in the Liu Tizhi (1879-1962) Collection, illustrated by Sueji Umehara, Nihon shucho shina kodo seika (Selected Relics of Ancient Chinese Bronzes from Collections in Japan), vol. 2, Osaka, 1960, no. 134. The high status of the zhu clan is demonstrated by the magnificence of the Beijiao fanglei, which is one of the most important ritual vessel types.

The elegant proportion, robust contour and the interplay between slightly splayed legs and the outward-turned bail handles orchestra to an overall solemn and monumental visual effect of this modestsized ding vessel. The decorative scheme of a cicada-filled-triangle band pendent from a taotie band was a classic design first appeared in the second phase of the Yinxu period, circa 1250 BC and continued well in to the early Western Zhou dynasty, 11th century BC. Ding with similar decoration include six Fuhao ding found in the Fuhao tomb in Anyang, illustrated in Zhongguo qingtongqi quanji (Compendium of Chinese Bronzes), vol. 2: Shang (2), Beijing, 1997, no. 4 and 5 (fig. 1); two She Fu Sang ding, one in the National Palace Museum and the other in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Palace Museum Collection, Taipei, 1998, p. 177 and in Zhongguo qingtongqi quanji, vol. 2: Shang (2), Beijing, 1997, no. 33. Unlike the Fu Hao and She Fu Sang ding which have three taotie masks divided by three pairs of kui dragons around the neck, the present Zhu ding has six taotie in the frieze around the neck. This design is more popular in the early Western Zhou dynasty as can be seen in examples illustrated in Zhongguo qingtongqi quanji (Compendium of Chinese Bronzes), vol. 5: Western Zhou (1), Beijing, 1996, nos. 25 and 26 (fig. 2). In ancient Chinese culture, cicada symbolizes infinite cycle of life because people believed cicadas are reborn from metamorphosis. Prominent bronze expert Chen Peifen pointed out that “Shang cicada motif doesn’t have wings and therefore represents the lava stage of cicada, which broke from the shell and prophesies birth of new life,”, see Chen Peifen, Xia Shang Zhou qingtongqi yanjiu (Research of the Xia Shang Zhou Bronzes), Shanghai, 2004, p. 101.

The present Zhu ding is well-known in academic circles as one of a few crucial first-hand evidence of the drum in Shang dynasty, and was included in many authoratative epigraphic monographs like Luo Zhenyu’s Zhensongtang ji guyiwen, Sandai jijin wencun, and Rong Geng’s Shangzhou yiqi tongkao. The Zhu ding was first collected by Yao Jinyuan (1823-1890) and passed through the legendary antique dealer in Republic period Beijing, Huang Bochuan. Yao Jinyuan, courtesy name Yanshi, was a native of Guian (modern day Huzhou). He passed imperial examination in the twenty-third year of the Daoguang reign (1843) and served as the Chief Secretary of Guangdong.