Yin ruins

Yin Ruins, the capital site of the late Shang Dynasty, is the first confirmed capital in Chinese history. Its discovery and excavation is rated as the first of "100 major archaeological discoveries" in China in the 20th century. There are a large number of bronzes, stone tools, bone ware, jade and other cultural relics with precious historical value in the Yin Ruins. The most famous one is the Simuwu square tripod, which weighs 875 kg. It is the largest and heaviest bronzes ever found in the world. When you come to Anyang, you must go to Yin Ruins to witness the history and culture of Shang Dynasty.

Yin ruins

Yin Ruins, formerly known as "northern Mongolia"

It is located in Anyang City, Henan Province. In the 14th year of Pan Geng, the 19th monarch of Shang Dynasty pan Geng moved his capital to northern Mongolia (now Anyang, Henan Province), and changed the name of "northern Mongolia" to "Yin"

. In the 15th year of Pangeng's reign, Yin capital was built.

From Pan Geng's moving to Yin Dynasty to the death of emperor Xin in 1046 BC, it experienced the rule of 12 kings of eight generations in 273 years, including pan Geng, Xiao Xin, Xiao Yi, Wu Ding, Zu Geng, Zu Jia, GUI Xin, Kang Ding, Wu Yi, Wen Ding, di Yi and di Xin

Yin has always been the political, economic, cultural and military center of the late Shang Dynasty.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Yin Ruins were famous for the excavation of inscriptions on bones and tortoise shells. In 1928, Yin Ruins officially began archaeological excavation, unearthed a large number of capital building sites and rich cultural relics represented by inscriptions on bones and tortoise shells and bronzes, which systematically demonstrated the brilliant bronze civilization in the late Shang Dynasty and established the scientific status of Yin Shang society as a history. It was rated as the first of "100 major archaeological discoveries" in China in the 20th century.

About 150000 pieces of oracle bones with Chinese characters were unearthed in Yin Ruins. The materials recorded in the oracle bone inscriptions brought the credible history of Chinese written records to the Shang Dynasty, and also produced a new discipline, oracle bone science.

The Yin Ruins is the first capital city in China to have documents and confirmed by Archaeology and oracle bone inscriptions. It is composed of the Yin Ruins mausoleum site, the Yin Ruins palace and temple site, the Huanbei mall site and Oracle Bone pits.

In March 1961, the State Council listed Yin Ruins as one of the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units. In July 2006, Yin Ruins were listed on the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage list.

Now it is a national AAAAA tourist attraction.

On October 13, 2018, the 90th anniversary of the scientific excavation of Yin Ruins and the Yin Ruins development and Archaeology forum were held.

On October 11, 2018, he was selected into the list of "national primary and secondary students' research and practice education base".

On March 20, 2020, Anyang Yinxu scenic area will resume opening to the outside world.

geographical position

Yin Ruins is located around Xiaotun village, Yindu District, Anyang City, Henan Province. Its geographical coordinates are 114 ° 18 ′ 50 ″ e, 36 ° 07 ′ 36 ″ n. its altitude is about 80m, its length and width are about 6km, and its total area is about 36km2. The core area of the heritage protection area is 414 hectares, and the buffer area is 720 hectares.

The overall layout of the Yin Ruins is neat, with the palace and temple site of the Yin Ruins in Xiaotun village as the center, and it is distributed in a ring shape along both sides of the Huan River. The existing relics mainly include the palace and ancestral temple site, the Royal Mausoleum site, the Huanbei shopping mall, Hougang site, the settlement site (clan town), the family cemetery group, the oracle bone cellar cave, the copper casting site, the handicraft workshop and so on.

Cultural relics

Palaces and temples

Located in Xiaotun village and huayuanzhuang on the South Bank of Huan River in Anyang City, Henan Province, the palace ancestral temple site is 1000 meters long from north to South and 650 meters wide from east to west, with a total area of 71.5 hectares. It is the place where the king of Shang handled government affairs and lived. It is also the most important site and component of Yin Ruins, including more than 80 building sites such as palaces and ancestral temples. In the West and south sides of the palace temple site, there is a defense ditch dug by hand, which encircles the palace temple and plays a similar role as a palace city.

There is also the tomb of Fuhao, the spouse of King Wuding of Shang Dynasty, in the palace and temple area. It is the only well preserved Tomb of the royal family of Shang Dynasty found so far. It is also the only Tomb of the royal family of Shang Dynasty that can be connected with Oracle Bone Inscriptions and determine the age, the owner and the identity of the tomb. There were 16 martyrs in the tomb, and 1928 artifacts were unearthed, including 468 bronzes, 755 jades, 564 bone artifacts and nearly 7000 seashells.

There are also a large number of Oracle Bone pits in the palace and temple area of Yin Ruins, and about 15000 pieces of oracle bone were unearthed.

Mausoleum site

Located in the northern highland of houjiazhuang and wuguancun on the North Bank of Huan River in Anyang City, Henan Province, the site is about 450 meters long from east to west and 250 meters wide from north to south, with a total area of about 11.3 hectares. Since 1934, 13 large tombs, more than 2000 funerary tombs, sacrificial pits and chariot pits have been found here, and a large number of exquisite bronzes, jades, stone tools and pottery have been unearthed. It is recognized as the location of the Royal Mausoleum of yin and Shang Dynasties in the academic circles. Among them, there are a large number of sacrificial pits in the eastern area, which are arranged in an orderly way. There are many human and animal skeletons in the pits. It is a public sacrificial site for the ancestors of the Yin royal family, and is now set up as m260 exhibition hall.

In addition, the houmuwu square tripod unearthed in the east of the mausoleum is the heaviest bronze vessel ever found.

Huanbei mall

Huanbei shopping mall is located in huayuanzhuang on the North Bank of Huan River in Anyang City, Henan Province. The site is generally square, 2.15 km wide from east to west and 2.2 km long from north to south, with a total area of about 4.7 square kilometers. There are rammed trenches around the city wall. The discovery of the Shang city site in Huanbei extended the history of the Shang Dynasty and the scope of the Yin Ruins.

The Shang city site in Huanbei was earlier than the late Shang culture in the traditional sense of Yin Ruins, and slightly later than the early Shang culture in Zhengzhou. It is likely to be a capital site in the middle and late Shang Dynasty.

Hun tombs

On May 3, 2017, it was reported that 18 Hun tombs were found during the archaeological excavation in the Yinxu site reserve. The tombs of Xiongnu were arranged in order, and their shapes were the same. Judging from the unearthed objects, these tombs are later than the Yin Ruins period, and are different from those in the Central Plains. Its time should be from the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Wei and Jin Dynasties, about 1800 years ago.

Excavation and evolution

Doubts about history

According to the records of Shangshu, Shiji, Zhushu Jinian and other documents, there was a Shang Dynasty in Chinese history more than 3000 years ago, which lasted for nearly 500 years and was the beginning of ancient Chinese history with the form of territory and country. Tang, the first Shang king, was founded in bodu in the early 16th century BC

And quickly conquered the neighboring forces and stabilized the political territory of the Shang Dynasty. There were 31 Shang kings before and after the succession of the Shang Dynasty.

The capital of Shang Dynasty had moved several times, from Pangeng, the 20th king of Shang Dynasty, to Yin Dynasty in 1319 BC

In 1046 B.C., Emperor Xin was subjugated and went through the rule of 12 kings of eight generations in 273 years, including Pangeng, Xiaoxin, Xiaoyi, Wuding, Zugeng, Zujia, Huixin, Kangding, Wuyi, wending, Diyi and Dixin

It has always been the political, economic, cultural and military center of the late Shang Dynasty.

After the fall of Shang Dynasty, it was gradually reduced to ruins.

In the southern and Northern Dynasties, Li Daoyuan described the location of Yin Ruins in shuijingzhu.

In the song and Yuan Dynasties, many bronzes were unearthed in Anyang, which attracted much attention, but it was considered as the prime minister capital of Hejia, the king of Shang Dynasty.

Tieyun Tibetan turtle

Xiaotun is located on the Bank of Huan River in the west suburb of Anyang City. Since the Warring States period, especially in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, this area has been used as an ideal place to bury the dead. It was not until the Ming Dynasty that it became a residential area composed of several families. Since the end of the Qing Dynasty, the residents of Xiaotun have often dug bone fragments from the ground. At the end of the 19th century, it was said that broken bones, the so-called keel, could be used to cure diseases. So villagers collected pieces of broken bones and either kept them for use or sold them to traditional Chinese medicine shops. Since then, the "keel" has been continuously dug out from the ground.

In 1899, Wang Yirong, an epigraphist, bought medicine because of illness. He found some very old characters carved on the keel sold in a traditional Chinese medicine shop in Beijing. He realized that they were precious cultural relics and began to buy them with a lot of money. He further verified that these "oracle bone inscriptions" were "Yin people's knife and pen inscriptions". In 1900, the Allied forces of the eight powers captured Beijing, and Wang Yirong killed himself in indignation. His son sold the keels to Liu e, a scholar in the late Qing Dynasty. In 1903, Liu e compiled and published his collection of oracle bones, which became the first oracle bone description "Tieyun canggui".

After the news of the discovery of Shang Dynasty oracle bone inscriptions spread, the whole academic circle was excited, and many scholars joined in the collection of oracle bone. The "keel" in each traditional Chinese medicine shop is worth hundreds of times at a time. Because of the huge profits from selling oracle bones, antique dealers hid the location of the oracle bones. In 1908 (let's talk about 1910), Luo Zhenyu found out that the oracle bones came from "the small village of binhuan". So he sent people there many times to buy the oracle bones, and made some textual research on the characters on them. He thought that the small village was the Yin Ruins mentioned in the literature. So far, the Yin Ruins site was known by the academic circles for the first time. In 1917, Wang Guowei made a textual research on the oracle bone inscriptions and sorted out the genealogy of the Shang king, which further confirmed that Xiaotun village was the capital of Pan Geng's capital.

Chinese PinYin : Yin Xu