Like today's pot, bowl, and plate, ding, gui, xu etc are vessels for cooking and containing food. According to stipulations of etiquette system made by the Duke Zhou in the early Zhou Dynasty,the nobles with different grades and positions must use ding, gui and Li etc. In different quantity in different occasions such as offering sacrifices to gods (or ancestors), cordially inviting the service of somebody and banquet, and so on. Those who ran counter to the etiquette system would be punished. Some bronze vessels had their makers' names on and a few had historical events on. Thus, we can know the etiquette system and some historic events of the Zhou Dynasty.
Ding was a kind of important vessel of ancient ritual bronze vessels, Which symbolized the different social status of the owner. On the basis of the burial system, nobles in Food containers.
Different grades were buried with a set of dings in different quantity and different size. Generally speaking, there were nine dings for the King, Seven for Dukes, five for Dafu (a senior Official in ancient China) and three for Shi (a social stratum in ancient China between senior officials and the common people). According to the numbers of dings buried within, the tombs of the Guo State can be divided into six grades, which reflects the social estate system of that time directly. |
