CULTURE: Is your word worth nine cauldrons?

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Strolling across any large Chinese city, on walls and bus stops you may have noticed posters featuring a bronze cauldron with three legs. This is a ding (鼎; Dǐng). The posters also have an inscription 'keep your promise like you guard your honor' (遵守诺言就像保卫你的荣誉一样 zūnshǒu nuòyán jiù xiàng bǎowèi nǐde róngyù yīyàng). But how is an ancient vessel connected to reputation and promise?

Tripod Cooking Vessel, Shang dynasty (1600-1046 BC). Earthenware with comb striations. 12th–11th century BC. The Metropolitan Museum of Art

To answer this question, we have to go back to the Neolithic era (5500-1900 BC), when ceramic cauldrons, together with jars, bowls, and cups were used to cook and serve food. Farming settlements had just begun to emerge throughout the fertile valleys of the Yellow River. People learned to make stone axes and spades, domesticate animals and plants, fire ceramics in kilns and paint designs on them. Villages grew in number and scale, and eventually walled cities appeared. While ordinary farmers worked the land, chiefs maintained order and organized construction works and rituals. In this way, inequality emerged. To show their status, the elites introduced rituals, an indicator of the difference between statuses. Early rituals consisted of offering food and wine to the spirits of royal ancestors, which, commanded by the Supreme God, controlled harvest, war, childbirth and other affairs important to the king and his people. From this point, the three-legged cauldron took on a ritual function – used to offer sacrifices of cooked meat.

One of the posters that inspired this article seen in Beijing's Dongcheng District

The role of the cauldron as a symbol of power increased when ceramic ritual vessels were replaced by bronze ones. First cast during the Erlitou period (1900-1600 BC), in order to meet the demand for ritual objects, they were put into production on a large scale by the Shang dynasty (1600-1046 BC). Made exclusively in royal workshops, using a complicated technology and made of metal from ores in distant southern regions conquered specially for this purpose, the precious vessels embodied status.

In the Shang Dynasty's ranking system, the monumental four-legged cauldron, the largest of all ceremonial vessels, was owned exclusively by kings and their male heirs. This is why, even though Lady Hao (d. 1200 BC), a general, priestess and a consort of King Wu Ding (d. 1192 BC), was a personality of outstanding merit, two monumental cauldrons found in her tomb did not belong to her but were a funerary present from her son. She herself owned small and middle-size three-legged and four-legged cauldrons – the types that lower-ranking elites were allowed.

Rectangular cauldron of Fu Jing, another wife of Wu Ding, Shang dynasty (1600-1046 BC). Bronze. National Museum of China

The monumental cauldron not only displayed the king's power, it transmitted its essence – the ability to communicate with the spirits. Later this belief transformed into the myth of the nine cauldrons, which were cast by Yu the Great, a legendary king famous for taming severe floods. After the floods, he divided the land into the Nine Provinces and collected bronze tribute from each one, casting it into nine large cauldrons which were then passed from one dynasty to another depending on the virtue of the ruler.

Although lost during the late Zhou period (1050-221 BC), the cauldrons were craved by rulers. In 116 BC, a cauldron unearthed in Shanxi was recognized as one from the ancient set and interpreted as an omen for the Han dynasty (206 BC-25 AD). Qin Shi Huang sent a thousand men to look for them in the Si River in Shandong. In 696, the cauldrons were recast by Wu Zetian (624-705) who wanted to reinforce her authority in the face of growing political pressure. In 1104, the nine vessels were again forged by emperor Huizong (1082-1135) to legitimate music reform.

Tripod cauldron, Shang dynasty (1600-1046 BC). Bronze. 12th–11th century BC. The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The cauldrons as a metaphor for authority, reputation, and negotiation skills is epitomized in the idiom 一言九鼎 (yī yán jiǔ dǐng) meaning 'one word is worth nine cauldrons'. This can be traced to a story about Mao Sui, a retainer of Lord Pingyuan, Prince of Zhao during the Warring States period (770-476). When the Qin army attacked Zhao, Mao Sui joined Lord Pingyuan on his mission to seek assistance from the State of Chu, and, despite Pingyuan's skepticism, managed to convince the king of Chu to help Zhao. The lord acknowledged his mistake and praised Mao Sui by comparing his persuasive skills with the strength of a million troops and noting that thanks to him Zhao had acquired an authority greater than that of the nine cauldrons.

The next time you see the poster featuring the three-legged cauldron, if you're anything like us, you might feel amazed at the length and breadth of the history behind it!

Have you seen a poster featuring this cauldron anywhere around China? Let us know in the comments section on our website (click the read more button below), or on our social media pages on Facebook (@CulturalKeysChina) or Instagram (@CulturalKeys). We always love hearing from you!

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- Cultural Keys

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