Nine Tripod Cauldrons
Encyclopedia
Xia Dynasty
The Xia Dynasty is the first dynasty in China to be described in ancient historical chronicles such as Bamboo Annals, Classic of History and Records of the Grand Historian. The Xia Dynasty was established by the legendary Yu the Great after Shun, the last of the Five Emperors gave his throne to him...
(c. 2200 BCE) by Yu the Great
Yu the Great
Yu the Great , was a legendary ruler of Ancient China famed for his introduction of flood control, inaugurating dynastic rule in China by founding the Xia Dynasty, and for his upright moral character....
, using tribute metal presented by the governors of the Nine Provinces of ancient China.
At the time of the Shang Dynasty
Shang Dynasty
The Shang Dynasty or Yin Dynasty was, according to traditional sources, the second Chinese dynasty, after the Xia. They ruled in the northeastern regions of the area known as "China proper" in the Yellow River valley...
(1600-1046 BCE) tripod cauldrons came to symbolize the power and authority of the ruling royal family with strict regulations imposed as to their use. Members of the gentry scholarly shì (士) class were permitted to use one or three cauldrons, zhū hóu (诸侯/諸侯) , the rulers of vassal
Vassal
A vassal or feudatory is a person who has entered into a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. The obligations often included military support and mutual protection, in exchange for certain privileges, usually including the grant of land held...
states seven, dàifu (大夫) or ministers of state five whilst only the crown prince, and the emperor (皇储皇室天子/皇儲皇室天子) were permitted the use of nine. The use of the nine tripod cauldrons to offer ritual sacrifices to the ancestors from heaven and earth was a major ceremonial occasion so that by natural progression the ding came to symbolize national political power and later to be regarded as a National Treasure
National treasure
The idea of national treasure, like national epics and national anthems, is part of the language of Romantic nationalism, which arose in the late 18th century and 19th centuries. Nationalism is an ideology which supports the nation as the fundamental unit of human social life, which includes shared...
. Sources state that two years after the fall of the Zhou Dynasty
Zhou Dynasty
The Zhou Dynasty was a Chinese dynasty that followed the Shang Dynasty and preceded the Qin Dynasty. Although the Zhou Dynasty lasted longer than any other dynasty in Chinese history, the actual political and military control of China by the Ji family lasted only until 771 BC, a period known as...
at the hands of what would become the Qin Dynasty
Qin Dynasty
The Qin Dynasty was the first imperial dynasty of China, lasting from 221 to 207 BC. The Qin state derived its name from its heartland of Qin, in modern-day Shaanxi. The strength of the Qin state was greatly increased by the legalist reforms of Shang Yang in the 4th century BC, during the Warring...
the nine tripod cauldrons were taken from the Zhou royal palace and moved westward to the Qin capital at Xianyang
Xianyang
Xianyang is a former capital of China in Shaanxi province, on the Wei River, a few kilometers upstream from Xi'an. It has an area of...
. However, by the time Qin Shi Huang
Qin Shi Huang
Qin Shi Huang , personal name Ying Zheng , was king of the Chinese State of Qin from 246 BC to 221 BC during the Warring States Period. He became the first emperor of a unified China in 221 BC...
had eliminated the other six Warring States to become the first emperor of China in 221 BCE, the whereabouts of the nine tripod cauldrons were unknown. Sima Qian
Sima Qian
Sima Qian was a Prefect of the Grand Scribes of the Han Dynasty. He is regarded as the father of Chinese historiography for his highly praised work, Records of the Grand Historian , a "Jizhuanti"-style general history of China, covering more than two thousand years from the Yellow Emperor to...
records in his Records of the Grand Historian
Records of the Grand Historian
The Records of the Grand Historian, also known in English by the Chinese name Shiji , written from 109 BC to 91 BC, was the Magnum opus of Sima Qian, in which he recounted Chinese history from the time of the Yellow Emperor until his own time...
that they were lost in the Si River
Si River
The Si River is a watercourse located in Shandong Province, China. It rises in the southern foothills of the Mengshan Mountains then flows through Sishui County, and the cities of Qufu and Yanzhou before emptying into Lake Nanyang...
(泗水) near Pencheng (彭城) to where Qin Shi Huang later dispatched a thousand men to search for the cauldrons but to no avail.
Origin
The Records of the Grand Historian recount that once Yu the Great had finished taming the floods that once engulfed the land, he divided the territory into the Nine Provinces and collected bronzeBronze
Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...
in tribute from each one. Thereafter he cast the metal into nine large tripod cauldrons. Legend says that each ding weighed around 30,000 catties
Catty
The catty , symbol 斤, is a traditional Chinese unit of mass used across East and Southeast Asia, notably for weighing food and other groceries in some wet markets, street markets, and shops. Related units include the picul, equal to 100 catties, and the tael, which is of a catty. A stone is a...
equivalent to 7.5 tons. However, the Zuo Zhuan
Zuo Zhuan
The Zuo Zhuan , sometimes translated as the Chronicle of Zuo or the Commentary of Zuo, is among the earliest Chinese works of narrative history and covers the period from 722 BCE to 468 BCE. It is one of the most important sources for understanding the history of the Spring and Autumn Period...
or Commentary of Zuo， states that the nine tripod cauldrons were cast by Yu the Great's son, Qi of Xia
Qi of Xia
Qi was the son of Yu the Great and the second sovereign of the Xia Dynasty. He ruled for approximately nine or ten years.According to legend, Yu married Nu Jiao and stayed at home for only three days before going back to stop a flood. While Yu was stopping the flood, Yu's wife had a son. He named...
, the second Xia Emperor, and it was he who received the tributes of bronze from the Nine Provinces.
Vicissitudes of the cauldrons
After Tang of ShangTang of Shang
King Cheng Tang of Shang was the first ruling king of the Shang dynasty in Chinese history. He overthrew Jie, the last ruler of the Xia dynasty.-Early life:...
overthrew Jie of Xia
Jie of Xia
King Jie was the 17th and last ruler of the Xia dynasty of China. He is traditionally regarded as a tyrant and oppressor who brought about the collapse of a dynasty. Around 1600 BCE Jie was defeated by Shang Tang, bringing an end to the Xia Dynasty, that lasted about 500 years, and a rise to the...
, the nine tripod cauldrons were moved to the Shang capital at Yan
Qufu
Qufu is a city in southwestern Shandong province, People's Republic of China. It is located at 35° 36′ northern latitude and 117° 02′ east, about south of the provincial capital Jinan and northeast of the prefecture seat at Jining...
(奄). Later, when the Shang king Pan Geng
Pan Geng
Pán Gēng was a Shang Dynasty King of China. He is best known for having moved the capital of the Shang Dynasty to Yīn....
moved his capital to Yin
Yinxu
Yinxu is the ruins of the last capital of China's Shang Dynasty. The capital served 255 years for 12 kings in 8 generations.Rediscovered in 1899, it is one of the oldest and largest archeological sites in China and is one of the historical capitals of China and a UNESCO World Heritage Site...
(殷), the cauldrons again went with him. Following the overthrow of the Shang Dynasty by the Zhou Dynasty, the new King Wu of Zhou
King Wu of Zhou
King Wu of Zhōu or King Wu of Chou was the first sovereign, or ruler of the Chinese Zhou Dynasty. The dates of his reign are 1046-1043 BCE or 1049/45-1043. Various sources quoted that he died at the age of 93, 54 or 43. He was considered a just and able leader. Zhou Gong Dan was one of his...
put the nine tripod cauldrons on public display for the first time.
When King Cheng of Zhou
King Cheng of Zhou
King Cheng of Zhou or King Ch'eng of Chou was the second sovereign of the Chinese Zhou Dynasty. The dates of his reign are 1042-1021 BC or 1042/35-1006 BC King Cheng was young when he ascended the throne...
ascended the throne, the Duke of Zhou
Duke of Zhou
The Duke of Zhou played a major role in consolidating the newly-founded Zhou Dynasty . He was the brother of King Wu of Zhou, the first king of the ancient Chinese Zhou Dynasty...
built the eastern capital of Luoyi (later Luoyang), he moved the cauldrons there, at the same time asking King Cheng to carry out their ritual installation in the settlement's Ancestral Hall. (太廟)
The power of the Zhou royal family began to decline at the start of the Eastern Zhou Period (771 BCE) with each vassal state clamoring for kingship. At the time of King Ding of Zhou
King Ding of Zhou
King Ding of Zhou or King Ting of Chou was the twenty-first sovereign of the Chinese Zhou Dynasty and the ninth of Eastern Zhou Dynasty.-Personal information: Family name Ji in Chinese...
(r. 605-506 BCE), Duke Zhuang of Chu inquired for the first time regarding the "weight of the cauldrons" (問鼎之輕重) only to be rebuffed by the Zhou minister Wangsun Man (王孫滿). Asking such a question was at that time a direct challenge to the power of the reigning dynasty. King Ling of Chu
King Ling of Chu
King Ling of Chu was a king of the State of Chu between 540 BC and 529 BC. His birth name was Wei and before ascending the throne he was known as Gongzi Wei .-Taking the throne:...
(r. 540 - 529 BCE) later again inquired of the cauldrons but was unsuccessful due to unrest sweeping the country During the reign of King Huiwen of Qin
Huiwen of Qin
King Huiwen of Qin , also known as Lord Huiwen of Qin or King Hui of Qin , personal name Ying Si , was the ruler of the Qin state from 338 BC to 311 BC during the Warring States Period of Chinese history.-Early life:...
(r.338 - 311 BCE), the strategist Zhang Yi
Zhang Yi (strategist)
Zhang Yi was born in the Wei state during the Warring States Period of Chinese history. He was an important strategist in helping Qin to dissolve the unity of the other states, and hence pave the way for Qin to unify China...
formulated a plan by which he hoped to seize the Nine Tripod Cauldrons and thus gain command of the other Zhou vassal states. King Qingxiang of Chu (楚頃襄王), along with the king of the State of Qi
Qi (state)
Qi was a powerful state during the Spring and Autumn Period and Period of the Warring States in ancient China. Its capital was Linzi, now part of the modern day city of Zibo in Shandong Province....
also sought possession of the treasures as did the states of Wei
Wei (state)
The State of Wei was a Zhou Dynasty vassal state during the Warring States Period of Chinese history. Its territory lay between the states of Qin and Qi and included parts of modern day Henan, Hebei, Shanxi and Shandong...
and Han
Han (state)
Han was a kingdom during the Warring States Period in China, located in modern-day Shanxi and Henan. Not to be confused with South Korea which shares the same character....
. The last Eastern Zhou monarch King Nan of Zhou
King Nan of Zhou
King Nan of Zhou, ch. 周赧王, py. zhōu năn wáng, wg, King Nan of Zhou, or less commonly King Yin of Zhou, trad. ch.: 周隱王, sim. Ch.: 周隐王, py: zhōu yĭn wáng, wg: King Yin of Zhou was the thirty-sixth and last sovereign of the Chinese Zhou Dynasty. He was King for fifty-nine years, longest in Zhou...
(314-256 BCE) dealt with all these rival claimants by playing them off against other and thus kept possession of the cauldrons.
Loss and recasting
After the overthrow of Zhou and the foundation of the new Qin Dynasty, the Nine Tripod Cauldrons disappeared. Theories as to their fate abound with no clear agreement amongst scholars. Amongst these theories are claims that the cauldrons were:- lost in the Si RiverSi RiverThe Si River is a watercourse located in Shandong Province, China. It rises in the southern foothills of the Mengshan Mountains then flows through Sishui County, and the cities of Qufu and Yanzhou before emptying into Lake Nanyang...
(泗水) near Pencheng (彭城) by King Zhaoxiang of QinKing Zhaoxiang of QinKing Zhaoxiang of Qin or King Zhao of Qin was the son of King Huiwen and younger brother of King Wu. After the death of Wu in 306 BC, Zhao contended for the crown of Qin with his younger brother. With the support of King Wuling of Zhao, Zhao finally ascended the throne...
(r. 306-250 BCE) en route to the Qin Capital - stolen by QuanrongQuanrongThe Quǎnróng , literally "Dog Rong", were an ethnic group active in the north western part of China during the Zhōu and later dynasties. Their language is classified as part of the Tibeto-Burman branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages family....
nomads following the fall of HaojingHaojingThis article is about the ancient Zhou Dynasty capital, for Haojing'ao see MacauHaojing was one of the two settlements comprising the capital of the Western Zhou Dynasty , the other of which was Fēngjīng . Together they were known as Fēnghào and stood on opposite banks of the Feng River with...
in 771 BCE; - melted down and recast into coins or weapons in the final years of the Zhou Dynasty.
According to historical records, both Qin Shi Huang and Emperor Wen of Han
Emperor Wen of Han
Emperor Wen of Han was the fifth emperor of the Han Dynasty in China. His given name is Heng.Liu Heng was a son of Emperor Gao of Han and Consort Bo, later empress dowager...
(r. 180-157 BCE) searched for the nine tripod cauldrons in the Si River but with no success.
Later emperors time and again recast the cauldrons, the most well known examples being Wu Zetian
Wu Zetian
Wu Zetian , personal name Wu Zhao , often referred to as Tian Hou during the Tang Dynasty and Empress Consort Wu in later times, was the only woman in the history of China to assume the title of Empress Regnant...
in 696 CE and the two recastings by Song Dynasty
Song Dynasty
The Song Dynasty was a ruling dynasty in China between 960 and 1279; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese government to establish a...
Huizong Emperor in 1105 CE.
In 2006, the National Museum of China
National Museum of China
The National Museum of China flanks the eastern side of Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China. The mission of the museum is to educate about the arts and history of China...
in Beijing cast Nine Tripod Cauldrons which are now on permanent display as a tourist attraction.