In Wu Hung's discussion of traditional Chinese concepts of
             monumentality, he utilizes the ancient legend of the Nine Bronze Tripods
             to illustrate how the traditions (including ancestral temple and ritual
             vessels, capital city and palaces, and tomb and funerary paraphernalia) of
             early Chinese cultures can be better understood after identifying their
             monumentality. According to the myth, in 605 B.C., a Chu lord lead a
             campaign near the Zhou capital at Luoyang where he was greeted by the
             minister Wangsun Man. After the lord inquired about the size and weight
             of the Nine Tripods, Wagsun Man answered with a passage stating the
             three distinct intentions of the tripods which forms the basis of ritual art
             Foremost, the Nine Tripods were made to honor important political
             events, notably the establishment of the Xia after which an organized
             power became evident. The Tripods also justified this event since they
             were constructed from bronze sent by the Xia allies and bore inscriptions
             of their things, confirming their entrance into the centralized political
             power. This allowed people to discern "divine" from "evil", the former
             being the Xia alliance while the latter represented the Xia enemies whose
             things were missing from the Tripods.
             Subsequently, the Nine Tripods became a symbol of Power - whomever
             was in possession of the Tripods held political power as well. With the
             ...