Ding was cast by the son of Yu in Xia Dynasty in China. It uses nine bronze cauldrons, beautifully carved, simple and elegant, with solemn momentum, which embodies the concentration and supremacy of kingship, the unity of the country and the prosperity of the nation. For thousands of years, it has been regarded as a national treasure handed down by the Chinese nation. From the perspective of craft aesthetics, it is a rare work. From the perspective of cultural archaeology, it is a concentrated representative of the Bronze Age in China. From the perspective of casting technology, it marks that the history of China has ended the barbaric era and entered the civilized era. Unfortunately, although there are endless information about Jiuding in historical books, it disappeared more than 2,000 years ago. The bronze casting industry in Xia Dynasty was quite developed. Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin, which has a low melting point and is convenient for casting and smelting. Copper smelting in Xia Dynasty. It is also recorded in ancient literature. "Yuejueshu" Volume 11: "When you are in the cave, use copper as a soldier." Regarding the casting of Jiuding, Mozi Gengzhu said: "In the past, Xia Hou opened (opened) famous mountains and rivers, while Tao Zhu was in Kunwu, ... and moved to the Three Kingdoms." The Three Kingdoms refer to Xia, Shang and Zhou. "Three-year announcement:" Jie lost his virtue and Ding moved to business. " That is to say. Archaeological data show that when slaves cast large-scale devices similar to Jiuding, they usually make models with fine mud, then use charcoal as fuel to melt copper and tin ore blocks in a copper crucible, and finally inject copper and tin solution into the models to become bronzes.
In the Spring and Autumn Zuozhuan, I talked about the casting of Jiuding: in the early summer, the court set Kyushu as the world, and the state set up a state animal husbandry. In summer, Kyushu pastoral contributes bronze and casts Jiuding. In advance, people were sent to paint the famous mountains, rivers, places of interest and wonders in various states of the country into picture books, and then selected famous craftsmen were sent to imitate these paintings on Jiuding, symbolizing that a state has a tripod. The carved figures also reflect the mountains and rivers of the state. Jiuding symbolizes Kyushu, which reflects the unity of the whole country and the high concentration of kingship, and shows that Wang Xia has become the master of the world and conforms to the "destiny". As the saying goes, "Is the man in the world a king's man or a king's minister?" Since then, Kyushu has become synonymous with China, "Dingding" and the establishment of state power.
Since then, Jiuding has represented the symbol of supreme power.