Abstract:

Starting from the Yin Dynasty, tripods were made of bronze instead of porcelain and became tools for ceremonies rather than for daily cooking. Hence there came a fundamental change in the purpose of the tripods as compared to the one when they were first invented. Similar to the meanings of animal patterns carved on the facets of the tripods by mysterious sorcery, the three legs of the tripod were given important symbolic meanings. Since the Western Zhou Dynasty, the primitive religion of gods' rule over the universe became more rationalized. The yin-yang theory tried to find rules of the operation of things in the universe from the objective natural changes and established the cosrnological conception of the trinity of the heaven, the earth and human beings. This provided a very important base for the symbolic meanings of the three legs of the tripod as "three masters."

Key words: the three legs of the tripod, symbolic implications of the tripod designing, primitive religion, the theory of the "three talents", "three masters"