As ritual vessels of the royal family and nobilities, most dings are ponderous, symbolizing the social clout and status of the owner. Large dings were used by the imperial court, so traditionally they are also symbols of state power. For instance, there is a Chinese idiom yi yan jiu ding (literally one word as heavy as nine dings), which means a pithy term that really sums things up. Another idiom, wen ding zhong yuan, means seizing state power or control. San zu ding li (literally standing on three legs like a tripod) means a stable, triangular balance of power.

The Hou Mu Wu Rectangular Ding is an 832.84-kg object, 133 cm high with a mouth 110 cm long and 78 cm wide. Such proportions attest to its robust nature. Many archaeologists wonder how such bronzeware was cast more than 3,000 years ago when the art's productive capacity and technology was in its infancy. They have calculated that to cast such a huge vessel more than 100 million tons of metal such as copper, tin and lead are needed, and the furnace must be sufficiently large. In addition, the body and legs of the vessel were cast simultaneously. Clearly the Shang Dynasty had developed superb molding and casting technology.

Another delight of ding design is the patterned surface. The four sides of the body have no images in the center, but all the other parts are decorated with motifs of various types. Most are taotie (animal-mask) patterns. According to a legend, Taotie is the fifth son of the dragon king, distinguished by its greed for food. On the outside of the handles are two tigers face to face, with a human head in between. Later this pattern evolves to an auspicious pattern: "two dragons play with a pearl." In general, people think it harkens to the forces of Heaven and Earth. Now certain specialists speculate that the human head in the mouth of the tigers represents the wizard who presided over sacrificial rituals. When the wizard appeared, he often led two beasts of prey. It's a reasonable assumption that the act of putting his head into the mouth of a tiger was to show his bravery and demonstrate his magic powers so that the masses would submit themselves to his witchcraft. Patterns with these motifs are often found on bronzeware and in jiaguwen (inscriptions on bones or tortoise shells of the Shang Dynasty).

On the side of the handles are fish images and its four legs feature animal faces. According to the research, Hou Mu Wu Ding should have been an important vessel for rituals of the Shang royal family. Its shape, patterns and casting are of a very high quality, a representative work of the zenith of the Shang bronze culture.

Hou Mu Wu Rectangular Ding was unearthed in 1939 by farmers from Wuguan Village, Anyang City, Henan Province. Too heavy to move without proper equipment, they buried it again. It was unearthed once more in June 1946, and the farmers cut off one handle, which was, regrettably, lost to posterity and had to be reconstructed later.