Yinxu mausoleum site

Yinxu mausoleum site

Located in the north of Wuguan village on the North Bank of Huan River in Anyang City, the site of Yinxu royal mausoleum is across the river from the site of Yinxu palace and ancestral temple in Xiaotun village, and echoes with the Huanbei shopping mall in the East, forming a famous Yinxu site at home and abroad.

Yinxu mausoleum site is an important part of the world cultural heritage Yinxu, together with Yinxu Palace temple site, Huanbei shopping mall site, etc. It has built m260 tomb display and protection house project, vegetation signs of 12 royal tombs, and more than 480 sacrificial pits and animal sacrificial pits display project. The Yinxu mausoleum site has become a large-scale heritage park integrating cultural relics protection, scientific research, publicity and education, tourism and leisure.

brief introduction

The Yinxu mausoleum site is about 450 meters long from east to west and 250 meters wide from north to south, covering a total area of nearly 200 mu. From 1933 to 2019, 13 large tombs, more than 2000 accompanying tombs and sacrificial pits have been found here. A large number of exquisite bronzes, jades, stone tools and pottery have been unearthed. The world-famous Simuwu square tripod was found here.

Yinxu mausoleum site is the mausoleum and sacrificial place of Yinshang Dynasty. It is known as "the second ancient Egypt" by international experts and scholars. It is the earliest and most complete mausoleum group known in China, and is recognized as the mausoleum site of Yinshang Dynasty. Its discovery confirmed the historical status of Yin Ruins as the capital of Shang Dynasty, promoted the study of Chinese slavery society, and became an important cornerstone of exploring the origin of Chinese civilization.

The distribution of Yin Ruins

The Yinxu mausoleum site is located in the northwest of houjiazhuang and the north of Wuguan village on the North Bank of Huan River. It is across the river from the Yinxu palace and ancestral temple site.

The mausoleum area of Yin Ruins includes the East and the West. Since 1934, 13 tombs (including one unfinished one), more than 2000 accompanying tombs and sacrificial pits have been excavated here. Among them, there are eight large tombs in the western area, which are divided into four rows, one in the South and one in the north, with m1500 and m1217 in the west, m1001 and m1550 in the East, m1004 in the northeast of the middle, m1003 in the northwest, M1002 in the South and m1567 in the middle; there are five large tombs in the eastern area, with one in four paths, m1400 and three in two paths, m1443, m1129 and 50wgkm1 respectively No. (military officer's tomb), 1 tomb Road, 1 tomb, m260. These large-scale tombs are all in the north-south direction, and the shape of the tombs is in the shape of Asian, Chinese, and Jia, which is recognized by scholars as the royal tombs of the late Yin and Shang Dynasties.

Cultural value

Anyang Yin Ruins site has important cultural value. The discovery of Oracle Bone Inscriptions and the excavation of Yin Ruins confirmed the existence of the Shang Dynasty in China, reconstructed the framework of the early history of ancient China, and made the history of the Shang dynasty recorded in the traditional literature a faithful history. The architecture of Shang Dynasty, represented by palaces and ancestral temples and mausoleums, set a good example of early palaces and royal tombs in ancient China. The earliest evidence of Chinese writing system has been found on 150000 pieces of Oracle Bones unearthed from Yin Ruins, which is still used by a quarter of the world's population. The cultural relics of Yin Ruins represented by bronzes and jades and the funeral customs represented by human sacrifice, human sacrifice, chariot and horse sacrifice and animal sacrifice provide unique evidence for the cultural tradition of the late Shang Dynasty. The archaeological excavation of Yin Ruins, which started in 1928, is the first time that Chinese national academic institutions are fully responsible for the excavation and Chinese scholars independently preside over it. It has trained a number of archaeologists, and Yin Ruins have become the cradle of Chinese archaeology. The important cultural value of Yin Ruins has also been affirmed by ICOMOS, a professional advisory body of UNESCO.

It has been more than five years since Anyang Yin Ruins officially started the work of applying for world cultural heritage in April 2001. Over the past five years, Anyang municipal government has invested more than 200 million yuan to produce the declaration text and two supplementary materials, demolished 210000 square meters of various buildings, renovated 20 kilometers of rivers and roads, and afforested 197000 square meters, thus comprehensively improving the surrounding environment of Yin Ruins. At the same time, the comprehensive use of a variety of methods to explore the display method of the site, not only to protect the deep buried relics, but also achieved good display effect, improving the appreciability of cultural relics. In particular, the Anyang municipal government cooperated with the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of social sciences to build the Yin Ruins Museum, which collects, protects and displays the movable cultural relics unearthed from the Yin Ruins. The museum, with an investment of 30 million yuan, was built by Anyang municipal government, and the collection was provided by the Institute of Archaeology of the Academy of social sciences. This win-win mode of cooperation between central units and local governments has effectively solved the problem of socialization and popularization of archaeological achievements, and achieved good economic and social benefits. Through this series of measures, the Yin Ruins have been built into a large heritage park with high quality, both protection and display.

Excavation process

In 1899, Wang Yirong, an epigraphist, discovered some ancient inscriptions (oracle bone inscriptions) engraved on the keels sold in a Chinese medicine shop in Beijing. He realized that they were precious cultural relics and began to buy them with a lot of money. In 1900, Wang Yirong's oracle bones were owned by Liu E. Luo Zhenyu, his family in law, learned that these oracle bones came from Xiaotun village in Anyang, Henan Province, so he sent people there many times to buy them, and made some textual research on the characters on them. He thought that Xiaotun was the Yin Ruins in the literature. Later, Wang Guowei made textual research on these oracle bone inscriptions, and further confirmed that this was the capital of Pan Geng.

From 1928 to 1937, in order to find more oracle bones, excavation began. The Academia Sinica organized an archaeological team to carry out 15 scientific excavations of Yin Ruins, which were later stopped due to the Anti Japanese war. After 1950, the excavation work began again. By 1986, more than 20 excavations had been carried out in more than ten sites, and about 150000 pieces of inscriptions were obtained.

Traffic information

Take bus No.1, 5, 18, 34, 39, 41 to Yinxu station and walk for 5 minutes

Yin calendar method

According to researcher Xu Guangde, the natural science and technology during the Yin Ruins period reached the world advanced level in many fields. The records of oracle bone inscriptions show that the Yin people have been able to accurately record solar eclipses, lunar eclipses and stars, and have an early understanding of supernovae and other astronomical phenomena. The Yin calendar method adopted the combination of yin and Yang, divided the year into 12 months, and adopted the method of adding leap month to solve the contradiction with the actual solar day in the regression year. These methods are still used in the current Chinese lunar calendar.

In mathematics, Yin people had the concepts of number, such as number, ten, hundred, thousand and ten thousand, and adopted the decimal system.

In medicine, the late Shang Dynasty has been able to understand more than 10 kinds of human diseases, in addition to drug treatment, but also the use of acupuncture, massage and other treatment methods, reached a higher level.

Archaeological excavation shows that the handicraft industry in Yin Ruins period was unprecedentedly developed, with complete categories and high level of craftsmanship. Some major handicraft production departments, such as bronze smelting and casting, jade making, pottery making, bone making, car making, textile and so on, have reached a considerable scale. Among them, white pottery and primitive porcelain of this period occupy an important position in the history of Chinese ceramics.

The carriage of Shang Dynasty unearthed from Yin Ruins has used a large number of bronze components, with single shaft, double sets and double wheels. The structure is delicate and complex, which reflects the superb mechanical, bronze casting and other composite technology.

The highly developed science and technology during the Yin Ruins period made an important contribution to the development of human science and technology.

Address: Yindu District, Anyang City, Henan Province, China

Longitude: 114.309587

Latitude: 36.142317

Tel: 0372-2253005

Chinese PinYin : Yin Xu Wang Ling Yi Zhi