Fuhao tomb

Fuhao tomb

Fuhao tomb is located in the southwest of the foundation site of group C, gonggongzongmiao District, Yin Ruins, Anyang City. It was excavated by archaeologists in 1976 and listed as the "top ten archaeological achievements in China" in 1976. It is also the only well preserved Tomb of the royal family of Shang Dynasty discovered since the scientific excavation of Yin Ruins. It is one of the most important archaeological discoveries in the palace and temple area of Yin Ruins since 1928. The tomb is 5.6 meters long from north to south, 4 meters wide from east to west and 7.5 meters deep. On the tomb, there is a hall called "muxinzong" in oracle bone inscriptions.

Fuhao Xiangtang and Muxin Zong are the ancestral temple buildings built by King Wuding on his tomb after the death of Fuhao. The hall of enjoyment on the tomb is called "muxinzong" in oracle inscriptions. This building is a scientific restoration of the remains of muxinzong.

Although the chamber of Fuhao's tomb is not large, it is well preserved, and the burial objects are very rich. A total of 1928 pieces of cultural relics with different textures, such as bronzes, jades, gems, ivory, etc., were unearthed.

Traffic information

Self driving: start from Zhengzhou, walk along the north exit of Anyang on Beijing Zhuhai Expressway (the whole journey is about 180 km), walk along Renmin Avenue westbound and turn right at Yinxu intersection (about 8 km, 20 minutes).

Public transportation: take No.1, No.18, No.39, No.41 bus to Yinxu Museum Station, and walk for 5 minutes.

Main attractions

Fuhao tomb is one of the most important archaeological discoveries in the palace and temple area of Yin Ruins since 1928. It is also the only well preserved Tomb of the royal family of Shang Dynasty discovered since the scientific excavation of Yin Ruins. The tomb is 5.6 meters long from north to south, 4 meters wide from east to west and 7.5 meters deep, without a passage. There is a rammed earth foundation on the upper part of the tomb, which is similar to the size of the tomb entrance. It may be a building for sacrifice. There are two platforms and waist pits in the tomb. Each of the East and west walls has a long strip-shaped niche. The coffin is 5 meters long, 3.4-3.6 meters wide and 1.3 meters high. Under the diving surface, most of the outer chamber collapsed, and the coffin was decayed. From the remains, we can see that it had been painted many times, with a layer of linen and a layer of thin silk on it. There are 16 martyrs in the tomb, four of them are in the filling of the upper part of the coffin top, two in the East niche, one in the West niche, one in the waist pit, and eight outside the coffin. In addition, six dogs were killed, one in the waist pit, the rest were buried in the upper part of the coffin top, and the remains of the tomb owner were decayed.

The tomb unearthed 1928 pieces of exquisite funerary objects, including 468 bronze wares, 755 jade wares, 564 bone wares, and 6800 seashells. Funerary objects are not only huge in quantity and rich in variety, but also novel in shape and exquisite in craftsmanship, which can be called the national treasure, fully reflecting the highly developed handicraft manufacturing level of Shang Dynasty. According to the stratigraphic relationship of the tomb and the inscription "Fuhao" on most bronzes, archaeologists identified the owner of the tomb as Fuhao, the spouse of King Wuding of Shang Dynasty. At present, Fuhao tomb is the only one that can be connected with Oracle Bone Inscriptions and determine the age, owner and identity of the Shang royal family.

Women's happiness

Fuhao Xiangtang and Muxin Zong are the ancestral temple buildings built by King Wuding on his tomb after the death of Fuhao. The hall of enjoyment on the tomb is called "muxinzong" in oracle inscriptions. The present building is a scientific restoration of the remains of muxinzong.

White jade statue of woman hero

The earliest female general in China

The white jade statue of Fuhao standing in front of Fuhao hall is carved according to relevant materials. You see, it has bright eyes, not angry but powerful, strong and resolute, majestic, which shows the heroism and elegant demeanor of the earliest women generals in China. The dragon pattern large copper Tomahawk she was holding was the weapon she had used before, weighing 8.5Kg. The other one weighs 9 kg. If you use such heavy weapons, you can see that you have excellent martial arts skills and great strength. In ancient times, axe and Yue were mainly used to manage the army, and "Yue" used to be the symbol of military commanding power, that is, royal power.

The funerary objects

Although the chamber of Fuhao tomb is not large, it is well preserved. There are 1928 pieces of funerary objects of different materials unearthed, including bronzes, jades, gems, ivory, bone and clam. The bronzes and jades can best reflect the cultural development level of Yin Ruins. There are 468 bronzes in total, mainly ceremonial vessels and weapons. There are a wide range of ceremonial vessels, including cookers, food vessels, wine vessels, water vessels, etc. Most of them are in pairs or groups. There are a pair of owl Zun, Gu and Xiao Fang Ding in the inscription of Fuhao. There are 12 round Ding, 6 in each group, and 8 copper Dou, 4 in each group. Simuxin's inscriptions include Dafang Ding and four legged Gong. In other inscriptions, there are pairs of square pots, square zuns, round cups, etc., and most of them are equipped with 10 Gu and 10 Jue.

There are 190 bronze ritual vessels with inscriptions, including 109 with "Fuhao" inscriptions, accounting for more than half of the bronze vessels with inscriptions. Such as owl Zun and round foot Gong, they have beautiful shapes and complicated patterns. It is the first time that sanlianyu and oufangyi appeared.

Sanlianyu

The pan is a cooking utensil used by the ancients, similar to the modern steamer. It is divided into two layers, the upper and the lower. The middle waist is tight, and the lower part is the pan. It is generally three hollow bags, which can store water. The upper part is a bottom through steamer, which is used to place food for steam cooking. Between the upper and lower layers is a perforated grate. It consists of a rectangular frame and three large steamers. There are three trumpet shaped rings on the face, which can hold three large steamers. The abdominal cavity is hollow, flat bottomed and has six short flat feet. There are cross shaped cast seams on the bottom. The surface of the frame is decorated with three groups of coiled dragon patterns, which are divided into three loops. The faucet is in a side shape, with the head at both ends facing down and the head in the middle facing up. There is a beast face and a dragon in front of a dragon. Dragon's body and tail are decorated with diamond pattern and small triangle pattern. The four corners of the shelf surface are decorated with cattle head patterns, and the cattle mouth is outward. The wall around the ring is decorated with triangle pattern and cloud pattern. There are also fine patterns on the four walls of the frame: five groups of dragon patterns and six large round fire patterns on both sides of the long side, which are separated from each other, with 10 large triangle patterns on the bottom; one dragon in the middle of both sides of the short side, with large round fire patterns on both sides. The main pattern is thunder pattern. There are two characters on the inner wall of the middle ring mouth. The shape of the steamer is large, with a diameter of 33cm. It has three fan-shaped holes at the bottom and a semicircular hollow ear. There are two fine ridges under the mouth, decorated with two groups of swimming dragon patterns, two dragons in each group, with the head opposite, and the thunder pattern as the ground. The upper and lower sides of the dragon body are respectively filled with circular fire patterns. There are two inscriptions on the inner wall under the mouth and the outer wall under the ears of the three steamers.

Triple steamer is a combination of stove and steamer. It can steam the same or different food in three steamers at the same time. It can also move its position and is convenient to use. It is an innovation of cooking utensils. Steam column steamer is actually a steam pot. It's a delicious food to steam chicken in Kunming. The same cooker appeared more than 3000 years ago, which is enough to show that the people of Yin Dynasty also deliberately sought for perfection in food.

Even Fang Yi

Tongfangyi was first found in the Shang Dynasty. The shape of the utensils is square and straight wall, and there are also rectangular ones. The lower part has square ring feet, the upper part has a roof shaped cover, and the cover has buttons. The utensils have straight abdomen, curved abdomen and ears beside the abdomen. The shape of individual utensils is similar to that of two Yi people, and their mouths are rectangular, which is called "even Fang Yi". The cover of this Yi ware is like a roof. There are symmetrical short column buttons at both ends. There are seven square covers and seven pointed covers on the long side, which coincide with the notch of the ware body. In the late Shang Dynasty and the early Western Zhou Dynasty, the shape of Fangyi changed, with shallow necking and slightly bulging abdomen. There are inscriptions on some utensils.

The bronze wares in the tomb are not only exquisite works of art, but also the embodiment of the ritual system of the Shang Dynasty. The bronzes inscribed on "Fuhao" are a relatively complete group of ritual vessels. The bronze sacrificial vessels with the inscription of "Si Mu Xin" should be the sacrificial vessels made by the descendants for the sake of women. Most of the other bronze sacrificial vessels with different inscriptions are wine vessels. Large wine vessels are equipped with 10 Gu and 10 Jue. It is probably the sacrificial utensils offered by nobles or Fangguo to the famous Queen. These are also important materials for studying the etiquette system of Yin Dynasty.

The weapons include Ge, Yue and arrowhead. Two large bronze Yue with inscription of "Fuhao" are most eye-catching. One is decorated with two tigers to capture the head. The tiger is like a little tiger and vivid. Similar patterns have been seen on the ears of Simuwu tripod. It seems to have a deterrent effect.

Big bronze Yue

The big copper Tomahawk is a cold fighting weapon used for chopping in ancient China. It consists of axe body and handle. The body of the axe is made of stone, copper or iron, and the handle is made of wood. The shape of the Tomahawk is similar to that of the axe, but the difference is that the shape of the Tomahawk is thin, the blade is wide, and the shape is circular. Yue is mainly used as a symbol of military power, so most of the Yue are well cast. The Yue is engraved with human face or animal face. Its image is ferocious and gorgeous, giving people a deterrent.

Xinjiang Sapphire

Many jades were unearthed in the tomb, most of which were complete or slightly incomplete. Mainly in different shades of green, but also brown, few white jade. When the staff of Anyang jade carving factory saw the jade, it was suggested that Xinjiang jade was the main jade in the tomb. We were very concerned about this view. After verification by many experienced people, it was confirmed that Xinjiang jade was the main jade in Fuhao tomb. After scientific identification, most of them are tremolite, but also actinolite. Tremolite is consistent with Xinjiang jade, and the hardness of the specimen is 6 degree Mohr. The discovery of Xinjiang jade in Yin Ruins is of great significance.

There are many types of jade, such as Cong, Bi, Huang and so on

Chinese PinYin : Fu Hao Mu