Yin Xu

 

 

LARGE ROYAL TOMB UNDER CONSTRUCTION THREE-DIMENSION DISPLAY

 

A bird-eye view of the Royal Tombs Area of Yin Xu	Midde Shang City North of the Huanhe River	A bird-eye view of the Palace and Ancestral Shrines Area Yin Xu

        

rectangular ding with the inscription"simuwu"  a bronze ceremonial instrument 133 centimeters high,orifice 116 centimeters long and 79 centimeters wide,and weight 875 kilograms,unearthed from the Tomb M260 north of Wuguan Village in Yin Xu in 1939,It is now kept in the Museum of Chinese History.

The site of Yin Xu,which spreads across the Huanhe River in the northwestern downtown area of Anyang City,is the site of the capital of the Late Shang Period.Among such capitals recorded in Chinese historical sources it was the first to have its existence comfirmed by modern archaeological excavations and contemporary oracle bone inscriptions.Yin Xu is also an important representative of Bronze Age civilizations worldwide.      According to the Chinese historical sources, Yin is the site where the 20th king of the Shang Dynaety, Pan Geng, moved his capital around the year 1300BC. The next 12 king of the 8 succeeding generations of the Shang Dynasty ruled their vast territory from this site for the following 255 years.The powerful Shang Dynasty marks a new epoch in the development of Chinese history in many ways. Contrary to earlier examples of Chinese Bronze Age capitals ,the layout of Yin Xu is msrkedly different.While other capital sites in China are usually surrounded by walls and divided into sections,at Yin Xu the Palace and the Royal Ancestral shrines Area froms the core of the capital while other types of sites are situated around this core in concentric circles. There is no surrounding wall. The palaces and royal ancestral shrines located by the south bank of the Huanhe River were wooden structures built on rammed earth foundations. This architectural style greatly influenced the palace and temple aechitecture of the following Chinese dynasties.Located by the north bank of Huanhe River is the oldest and most integral royal cemetery area ever discovered in China.The biggest of the tombs is more than 10 meters deep and it contained a large number of human and animal sacrificial victims as well as funerary accessories providing evidence for a very highly developed crafts industry during the Shang Dynasty. Perhaps the most important discovery at Yin Xu, however, was turtle plastrons and bovine scapulae with writing, the so-called oracle bone inscriptions. This writing porved out to be the direct ancestor of the modem Chinese written characters. The writing on these bones confirmed later historical soures and pushed back the recorded Chinese history by a thousand years. These inscriptions constitute one of the four earliest writtrn languages in the world. The other major type of find that has attracted a lot of attention both in China and abroad is the ritual bronze vessels associated with the Shang Dynasty. These ritual vesses are ofen expuisitely decorated and while they had important functional roles during the time of their use they can also be considered to be magnificent pieces of art. The Shang also excelled in jade and bone carving, and ceramic manufacture. In many of these craft industries the Late Shang period stands out as a period of significant technological advances.

These various artefacts and structures found at Yin Xu not only testify for its importance as an archaeological treasure house but also as the birthplace of Chinese civilization. In addition to the historic, cultural ,and scientific importance of Yin Xu for the Chinese nation, it is also indispensable for the study of the history of human civilization. The unique characteristics of Shang Dynasty compared with other Bronze Age civilizations, the influences had on the later Chinese dynasties, and its achievements in the fields of crafts industries, state administration , and the world of religion, will help further generations to understand not only the development of Chinese culture but also world cultures and technologies in general.

jade elephant Adecorative article 6 centimeters long and 3 centimeters high,it was unearthed from Fu Hao Tomb in 1976 and is now in the collections of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

b.Comparative analysis

spear with a bronze handle and a jade edge inlaid with a snake motif a ceremonial instrument 22 centimeters in total length with a 12-centimeter handle,it was unearthed from Tomb No 25 south of Dasikongcun of Yin Xu in 1986. It is now in the collections of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

The Shang Dynasty is the second of China's Bronze Age dynasties. It was founded in the 17th century BC. According to the historical sources, the Shang kings moved their capitals several times brfore Pan Geng moved his capital to Yin, which then remained as the capital until the end of the Shang period. The Chinese historical sources mention several earlier Shang capital by name. Scholars have tried to tie these name to the various Shang urban sites thus far located, such as the Erlitou site, the Zhengzhou Shang City, and the Yanshi Shang City, but thus far there is no consensus of opinion. In contrast, there is no difference of opinion when it comes to the name and status of the site of Yin Xu. The nameYin XU is mentioned in several later Chinese historical sources where also its location is accurately described. In addition, the oracle bone inscriptions and archaeological excavations at the site have verified its identity as the Last Shang capital.      The Shang Dynasty is considered to have the earliest hallmarks of civilization in China: urban centres, specialized crafts industry and written language. As the last capital of such a civilization, the site of Yin Xu stands out as the main representative of the Chinese Bronze Age.

Yin Xu is the biggest of all the Shang capitals. Scattering on an area of 2400 hectares are remains of palaces and royal ancestral shrines, royal tombs,clan villages, family tombs, and craft workshops.The open layout of Yin Xu (where the Palace and Ancestral Shrines Area forms the core with other types of sites surround it in concentric circles) served as the example for the construction of open capitals in later Chinese history. However, one of the features of Yin Xu stands out as something that has never been discovered in any other capital city built in the early years of Chinese history: the complete royal tombs area. The specialized crafts industry that developed during the Shang period is best known for the ritual bronzes. The manufacture of these objects required very highly developed managerial, manufacturing, and artistic skills. The very delicate decorations on these vessels, their large quantity and size all indicate an unprecedented level of bronze workmanship and associated management. By the time of the peak of Yin Xu, the language recorded in the oracle bones was already fully developed and in use as an administrative tool. All of the features of a fully blown Bronze Age civilization are present at Yin Xu thereby making it the prime representative of that time period in China.      Compared with other ancient civilizations, the Bronze Age culture exemplified by Yin Xu carries distinct Chinese characteristics. Contrary to the civilizations of ancient Egypt, Babylon, and India where written languages developed in connection with economic transaetions, the oracle bone records of the Shang Dynasty are connected to ritual activity. They record the questions posed to the ancvestors by the Shang nobles along with the answers and outcomes of those divinations. Also the medium of the language is different: bone as opposed to clay, stone, or papyrus. Of the four ancient written language, Chinese is the only one that did not vanish but continues to be used by 1.2 billion people after more than 3000 years of development and evolution. This demonstrates the extraordinary vitality of the Chinese language. In contrast to other ancient Bronze Age civilizatons where the most important bronze objects were tools and weapons, in China the most important objects cast from bronze were ritual vessels. These ritual vessels are one of the unique features of the elite Shang religion of ancestor worship, which, long after the ritual bronzes have lost their religious role, has remained the core of Chinese spiritualism. The remains of Yin Xu therefore provide a fascinating comparison with other major civilizations of the ancient world.

jue,wine vessel with the inscription of"Su Quan" a bronze ceremonial instrument 19.7 centimeters in height and 0.85 kilogram in weight,it was unearthed from Fu Hao Tomb in 1976

c.Authenticity and integrity

gong with animal-mask motif a bronze ceremonial instrument 19.3 centimeters in height,10.7 centimeters in diameter,and 7.3 centimeters in width, it is in the collections of the Shanghai Museum.

Because the remains at Yin Xu have been buried underground for most of the last 300 years, they have remained under perfect state of conservation despite the fact that they do have suffered some damages by natural and human agencies. Since 1928, when scientific excavations at Yin Xu started, the aerial extent and layout of the area have gradually become known. During the process of excavation and study due attention has been paid to the preservation and protection of the area. After the foundation of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the development of roads, enterprises, and residential areas has been brought under planned control. In order to keep the area of Yin Xu in its original state some of the residents of the zone of protection have also been gradually resettled. Since the 1980s, the Yin Tomb Museum and the Yin Xu Museum were estalished at the Royal Tombs Area and the Palace and Royal Ancestral Shrines Area respectively. According to the principle of 'keeping things as they were and history as it was', methods combining traditional and modern scientific rechniques have been exploited to protect and present Yin Xu in a professional way. In the conservation of the relics attention has been paid to maintaining the historical authenticity of their designs, materials and technical processes. At present within the boundary of the area proposed for inscription there are only farmland and greeneries in addition to some villages and village paths. Rich deplsits of archaeological remains, including palaces, royal tombs, and crart workshops, are still buried underground. Apart from a few remains that are displayed in a protective manner, most of them are laying reburied underground for conservation purposes. The original appearance of the landscape and historical setting of Yin Xu have basically been kept untouched. Therefore, to a great extent the authenticity and integrity of Yin Xu have remained intact.

d.Crteria under which inscription is proposed

(1)The remains at Yin Xu are masterpieces of human art, science and technoloy

The main importance of Yin Xu for China and the world as a whole is the outstanding achievements in art, scoence,and technology of the Late Shang period exemplified by the remains excavated here. The oracle bone inscriptions, bronze vessels, and jade artefacts from Yin Xu are outstanding representatives of world art history. Oracle bone carry the earliest systematic written language and one of the major ancient written languages in the world. Allthe currently known principles of forming Chinese characters were already in use, therefore indicating the maturity of the wrirren language as early as 1300 BC.More than 1,500 pieces of oracle bone carrying 4,500 characters have thus far been excavated.Of those characters about 1,500 have thus far been deciphered. The topics covered in the inscriptions are extremely rich touching upon all aspects of Shang society. These have become the most important documents for Shang studiesl. The bronze vessls from Yin Xu represent the highest achievements of bronze manufacturing during the Chinese Bronze Age. The bronze ritual vessels are of excellent quality both in terms of form and decoration. A large number of what are considered masterpieces of bronze manufacturing orginated in the bronz workshops of Yin Xu, such as the Simuwu rectangular ding,rectangular ding with ox motifs, and rectangular ding with deer motifs. The Shang used actual or imaginary animals as models for the shapes of the vessels, such as the owl-shaped zun from the tomv of Fu Hao, gu with a ring foot from the same tomb, and the owl-shaped you wine vessel.The decorations on the vessels are very exquisite and elaborate. The vessels were often decorated all over with thunder or coiled dragon patterns. These decorations give an impres-sion of steadiness, solemnity, and mystery. The bronze vessels of the Late Shang period discovered at Yin Xu are perfect combinations of bronz manufacturing technology and the arts of sculpture and painting. The jade artefacts are likewise examples of superb mastery of technical processes and artistic imagination characteristic of the Chinese Bronz Age. However, they also attained their own special characteristics. By combining sculpturing, bright colouring and double intaglio line, the craftsmen were able to make buman and animal figures extremely vivid. The quality of jade carving technolgy is the best measured in even contemporary world standards.The jade artefacts discovered from the tomb of Fu Hao, in particular, are extremely vividly modeled and delicately carved.

human mask 25.4 centimeters in total height,it was unearthed from Tomb No 1400 in the Royal Tombs Area of Yin Xu in 1935 and it is now in the collections of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica,Taiwan.

rectangular ox-head ding a bronze ceremonial instrument 73.2 centimeters high,orifice 64.4 centimeters long and 45.6 centimeters wide,unearthed from Tomb 1004 in the Royal Tombs Area of Yin Xu in 1935. It is in the collections of the Institute of History and Philology,Academia Sinica,Taiwan,which has also supplied this photo.

Many scientific and technical achievements were made during the Late Shang Period. Oracle bone inscriptions reveal that the Shang could already record solar and lunar eclipser and star configurations accurately. They also gained a comparatively early understanding of supernova and other astronomical phenomena. The Shang had adopted the combined solar and lunar calendrical system. They divided the year into 12 months and added a leap month in between to solve the contradiction with actual sun days in a solar year. This method is still used today for the lunar calendar in China. The Shang had the concept of numerals and had adopted the decimal system. In medical science, they recognized more than 10 different kinds of disease and treated them with drugs, acupuncture, massage and other methods. Specialized crafts industries such as bronze as bronze, jade, bone, silk, and pottery manufacture brew to a very considerable scale. Bronze casting was perfected with the knowledge gained about different types of alloys and their characteristics culminating in precise mixtures of copper, tin, and lead. The unique and complicated piece-mould system of bronze casting clearly reflects the attention paid and the knowledge gained alout the characteristics of the material attained during the Late Shang Period. Important progress was also gained in pottery manufacture. The white pottery and primitive porcelain manufactur during the Shang dynasty are very important in under-standing the later history of Chinese ceramics industry. Bronze components began to be used in large quantity in the manufacture of chariots sa can be seen from excavated Shang Dynasty chariots. Those chariots are composed of a single axe, two sets of harnesses, and two wheels and hisghlight the interaction between different typer of crafts industries, such as woodworking and bronze casting. Remains excavated fromYin XU therefore mark an important period for the development of science and technology.

（2）The Late Shang culture of Yin Xu has had far-reaching influences on the formation and development of Chinese culture

The writing system used in the oracle bone inscriptions has played an important role in the diffusion and development of Chinese civilization for thousands of years. All the major structural components of the modern Chinese language, including character forms and grammar, are already present in these records. Although the characters have gone through several stages of development during the subsequent hundreds of year's, they have fundamentally stayed the same and been passed on to the present-day generation of Chinese speakers comprising one fifth of the whole human population. The basic structures of characters, combination of components indicating pronunciation and meaning, and their square form as well as basic grammatical structures are all already found in the oracle bone records. The written Chinese language, the characters themselves, has had an enormous influence on the development of Chinese aesthetics and art. The very art form of Chinese callinralhy is cased on the continuous existence and development of these characters. The language of the oracle bone inscriptions has therefore become the only one of the four ancient written languages still existing today. The Chinese language that evolved from oracle bone inscriptions hae also played an important role in diffusing the Chinese culture and promoting the formation and consolidation of a unified Chinese nation. Even when differences between the dialects of the Chinese language have sometimes hindered communication between different areas of China, written language has always been the avenue of mutual understanding and consolidation. Its influence on the strength and continuing success of Chinese culture cannot be overestimated.

dear-head ding a bronze ceremonial instrument 60.8 centimeters high,orifice 51 centimeters long and 38 centimeters wide,unearthed from Tomb 1004 in the Royal Tombs Area of Yin Xu in 1935. It is in the collections of the Institute of History and Philology,Academia Sinica,Taiwan,which has also supplied this photo.

Ivory cup utensil 39.3 centimeters high,it was unearthed from Fu Hao Tomb in 1976.It is now in the collections of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

The bronz culture of Yin Xu is a reflection of the artistic level and social customs of the Late Shang Period and represents the highest level of development in China's ancient bronz culture. The ritual system of the Shang, based on ancestor worship and the use of bronze ritual vessels, greatly influenced other cultures surrounding it. Ritual vessels made by the Shang were used and imitated by other groups around it, its burial customs and ritual systems were adopted by groups aspiring to reach the same level of sophistication. This interaction of several Bronz Age cultures within the area of modern day China paved way to the formation of the Chinese nation with its own unique characteristics.     The Shang belief system based on the importance of the succession of generations and the overal emphasis on blood relationships evidenced by clan communities and cemeteries and oracle bone inscriptions excavated at Yin Xu led to the creation of a tight patiarchal clan structure.In this social structure the members of the same clan lived together and were buried into the same cemeteries.The graveyards of different clans found at Yin Xu were scattered with apart. In each graveyard, the tombs were usually arranged in regular blocks, and all burial bronz objects in the same graveyard bore the same clan emblem. The clan emblems so far recognized include gong, yazhi, yuan, fu, ju, and ning. This form of social organization based on clans has been in use until modern times, and its remains can still be found in the most rural areas of China. The continuance of this type of social structure after the development of state level societies is extremely unique. In most other parts of the world where state level societies developed in prehistory, blood relationship were replaced by relationships solely based on social hierarchy, occupation,or contractual ties.

(3) The rich cultural remains at Yin Xu provide evidence for extinct cultural traditions

The Late Shang Period the capital of which Yin Xu was created a brilliant Bronze Age culture. With the course of history and the debelopment of sociely, the art of divination, the Shang burial rites, the practice of offering sacrifice, and other such systems widely used by the Shang lost the basis for their existence and became gradually extinct.The discovery and excabation of Yin Xu have provided evidences for the existence of these lost cultural traditions.        Scapulimancy, using animal bones for dibination purposes, had a long history in ancient China. During the Late Shang period, however, this practice was more prominent a feature of social life than ever before or after. The kings and nobles of the Shang Dynasty would not engage in almost any activity without divining about it first. As a result, a systematic and strict set of rules were formed during this period on the acquisition, storage, preparation, and carving of scapulae;on the methods and procedures of divination ;and on the grammar and metaphors used on the inscriptions. We know from the oracle bones that a special group of dibiners specializing in divination and inscriptions debeloped during the Late Shang period. The number of individual dibiners recorded in the inscriptions is about 100 or more, and the number of diviners recorded in the so-called Bingzu oracle bone insbriptions from the reign of the 23rd king of the Shang dynasty, Wu Ding, alone is 16. The topics covered in the inscriptions include offerings of sacrifices,weather, harvest, war expeditions, royal affairs,calendar, and even hunting trips, illnesses, dreams, and the birth of offspring of the kings of the Shang Dynasty. After the Shang period, scapulimancy gradually lost its importance and the knowledge of this practice was lost. The discobery of oracle bone inscriptions at Yin Xu has provided evidence for this lost practice as well as important materals for the study of China's cultural history.

Oracle bone Unearthed from the pit of turtle plastrons and animal bones in the south of Xiaotun in 1973.

Oracle bone Serial No:71T1⑦.Unearthed in the west of Xiaotun in 1971.

Especially the pracice of human sacrifice is a feature of the Shang ritual system that has not been passed on to later Chinese dyiasties. Remains of sacrificed human beings can usually be found at or near rammed-earth foundations of palace buildings at Yin Xu. To the south of the B7 rammed-earth house foundation, small burial pits and chariot pits have been found. The pits were arranged close together and divided into three groups. In the middle group alone there are more than 390sacrificed human beings. Around the Great Tomb of the King more than 2,000 sacrificial pits with human and animal victims have been found. In the 191 sacrificial pits excavated in 1976, more than 1,178 human skeletons were found. According to statistics thus far gathered, 1,992 inscriptions in 1,350 individual oracle bones refer to sacrifices of humans with the total number of victims reaching 13,052. In addition to performing sacrifices when erecting important buildings, human and animal sacrifices were conducted when important individuals passed away.The number of victims sacrificed was determined according to the social status of the deceased The number varied form to over 200. The number of human sacrificial victims found at the Great Tomb of the King, M1001, was 225.The practice of human sacrifices reached its height during the Late Shang Period after which it very rapidly ceased to be practiced. The remains at Yin Xu therefore bear evidence on extinct cultural traditions.      For this reason,Yin Xu can be said to comply with Criterion III on World Cultural Heritage.      The ritual system of the Late Shang Period was extremely hierarchical. Over the past 70 years of archaeological excabations at Yin Xu, over 8000 tombs including royal and clan tombs have been discovered. Some of the tombs have tomb passages, some are vertical rectangular pits, some are shallow graves,some contain funerary urns, and some are simple sacrificial pits, which is a phenomenon rarely found at other archaeological sites around the world. The structure, size, labour expenditure, and number and quality of grave goods depended on the social status of the deceased. The highest stratum of the Shang society, the kings, was interred into the most elaborate tombs. The Great Tomb of the King at Yin Xu, mentioned earlier, was surrounded by numerous tombs of sacrificed slaves. The inner and outer coffins were richly decorated and the ritual vessels interred with the deceased were of the highest quality. Fu Hao, believed to be a consort of a Shang king, was interred together with 1,928 funerary objects. In contrast, the tombs of ordinary people and slaves have only very few burial goods if any. These characteristic only of the tombs found at Yin Xu provide evidence for a ritual system characteristic only of the Shang dynasty.

(4)The buildings at Yin Xu, including palaces, ancestral shrines and the royal tombs, are masterpieces and palace and mausoleum architecture of early Chinese history

The Palace and Ancestral Shrines Area extends over an area of 71.5 hectares. Thus far more than 80 palace and ancestral shrine foundations have been discovered in this area. The foundations are in three distinct groups, which have been determined to be palaces, ancestral shrines, and altars respectively. This layout can be considered to be an early form of later Chinese palace architecture characterized by main halls in the front ,bedrooms in the rear, ancestral shrines on the left, and altars on the right. In contrast to public architecture in ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and ancient Rome where such buildings were constructed from stone, the palaces and temples of the Shang dynasty were built from clay and wood. The buildings sat on massive and very labour intensive rammed-earth foundations made from layers and layers of tightly packed earth. The frames of the buildngs sat on wooden posts that were inserted into postholes dug into the foundation. The walls were usually made of rammed-earth while rools were made of cogon grass. This simple and graceful palatial architectural style has had an enormous influence on later Chinese palace architecture. The closely linked main building of the palace complex are large and have a complicated inner structure. The multiple courtyards are arranged orderly and symmetrically around the buildings and reflect the sense of balance, orderliness and beauty so important also in later Chinese palace architecture. The layout, architecture, and methods and techniques of construction applied to the construction of palace and temple complex at Yin Xu represent the early days of Chinese palace architecture so characteristic of later Chinese dynastic palaces.      The Royal Tombs Area at Yin Xu is thus far the oldest and most perfectly conserved in China. Covering an area of 11.3 hectares, it contains 12 largr tombs with tomb passages and more than 2,000 sacrificial pits and tombs of immolated humans and animals. The large royal tombs are divided into two groups with the eastern one containing five and the western part the remaining eight. This division is considered to represent the beginning of the zhaomu system whereby individual clans arranged their ancestral tablets in order of seniority with the tablet of the first ancestor standing in the middle. The tomb chambers of the royal tombs at Yin Xu are of mainly three different shapes: the first type resembles the Chinese character ‘亚’，the second the character ‘中’ and the third the character ‘甲’. The tombs are extremely large. The largest of them covers an area of 1,803 m2 and is 15m deep. The outer and inner coffins were extremely luxurious and there were a larger number of very valuable burial accessories. The number of sacrificial victims together with the characteristics of these tombs indicates the reverence, dignity and high social status of the deceased interred into these tombs. The whole burial system, the layout and location of the tombs, and number of attendants and sacrificial victims interred in them are all indicators of the Shang social system with extreme status differences and emphasis on kinship. The Shang royal tombs represent the highest level of construction of royal tombs in ancient China and were an example for the following Chinese dynasties and gradually developed into a burial system with unique Chinese characteristics.        For this reason, it can be stated that Yin Xu complies with Criterion IV on World Cultural Heritage.

Oracle turtle plastron Serial No:H3:877.Unearthed from Pit H3 in the east of Huayuanzhuang village in Yin Xu in 1991.

(5)Excavations at Yin Xu have provided reliable material evidence for the history of early Chinese language, ancient beliefs, social system, and major historical events.

Structure of Tomb M1002 in the Royal Tombs Area of Yin Xu(courtesy of the Institute of History and Philology,Academia Sinica,Taiwan)

Archaeological excavations at Yin Xu over the past 80 years have unfolded the rich and colourful history of China's Late Shang Period and provided reliable material evidence for the history of early Chinese language, ancient beliefs and social systems, and major historical events. These archaeological excavations have come to the aid of early Chinese historical sources, which have not had that much to say about the Shang dynasty except to mention its existence and few major events connected to the dynasty. The discovery of oracle bone inscriptions at Yin Xu has verified the early historical records that claim that'our ancestors in the Shang Dynasty already produced books and documents to record history'. Oracle bone inscriptions have thus pushed back China's written history to include the last 3,000 years. They have also further clarified the developmental process of the Chinese language since its early years. The voluminous records in the form of oracle bone inscriptions of the Shang people offering sacrifices to their god, to heaven, earth, natural divinities and to their ancestors, and the large number of sacrificial remains unearthed at Yin Xu reflect the human reverence for nature during the early years of ancient Chinese society. They have furthermore verified such entries in the early historical sources as 'people of the Shang Dynasty respect the souls of the dead' and 'offering of sacrifices and fighting wars are the most important events in a country'. They have also provided important material for the study of primitive religions and belief systems. The records in oracle bone inscriptions have provided evidence for different social classes, neighbouring states, corporal punishments, prisons, armed forces and wars. The archaeologically verified existence of clan settlements, clan graveyards, and sacrificial victims, meanwhile, has revealed many aspects of clans, social structure, and social stratification of the Late Shang Period. They are of great significance to the study of the rise and fall of state level societies in ancient China. As the political, economic, military and cultural centre of China's Late Shang Period, Yin Xu has witnessed the 255-year history of the rise and fall of that Dynasty. Many major historical events in China's ancient history, such as 'King Pan Geng removes his capital', 'King Wu Ding revives central China', 'Emperor Yi goes on a punitive expedition against tribes in the east', and 'Emperor Xin loses his country', all have connections with this site. From the entry of'no change of the capital' for 255 years from the removal of the capital by King Pan Geng to Yin Xu to the Emperor Xin's loss of his country, the legendary genealogy of the kings of the Shang Dynasty, and to the existence of some important neighbouring states of Renfang, Tufang, Genfang, Guifang, and Qiangfang with their active presence around the Shang territories have all been verified by oracle bone inscriptions unearthed at Yin Xu. This has laid a solid basis for the reconstruction of early Chinese history. As a result, Yin Xu has been listed among the 100 most important archaeological discoveries in China as well as one of the greatest archaeological discoveries in thd world in the 20th century.

Yin Xu is the site of an ancient capital city in China where archaeological excavations have been carried out the longest, on the biggest number of occasions, on the largest scale in the history of modern Chinese archaeology.The archaeological excavations that started at Yin Xu in 1928 were the first of their kind to be conducted in China by Chinese academic instituions on their own efforts thereby also turning Yin Xu into the birthplace of modern Chinese archaeology. A number of world-famous archaeologists, including Li Ji, Liang Siyong, and Xia Nai received their training at this site. Today, the study of Yin Xu has developed from a pure study of oracle bone inscriptions into a world-wide 'Yin Xuology' involving archaeology, history, paleo-philology, and other branches of academic scholarship. Description of property     Yin Xu is located across both banks of the Huanhe River in the northern suburbs of Anyang City, a Chinese city known for its history and culture. Known as 'Beimeng' in ancient times and 'Dayishang' and 'Shangyi' in oracle bone inscriptions, it was the capital city of the Late Shang Period of China. It is also the site of the earliest capital city in Chinese history recorded in early historical sources the existence of which has been confirmed by oracle bone inscriptions and through archaeo-logical excavations. It now has a history of 3,300 years.     The area of Yin Xu is extensive. Bordering Guojiawan in the east, Beixingzhuang in the west, Liujiazhuang in the south, Houying in the north, and Sanjiazhuang in the northeast, it is 6 kilometres north-south and about 5 kilometress east-west. It covers a total area of about 2,400 hectares. In its layout Yin Xu is an ancient capital city with an open structure with concentric circles of sites sur-rounding the Palace and Ancestral Shrines Area at Xiaotun along the southern and northern banks of the Huanhe River. Laying within this area are the Palace and Ancestral Shrines Area, the Royal Tombs Area, numerous sites of clan settlements and graveyards, caches of bovine shoulder blades and turtle plastrons, as well as bronze, jade, bone and pottery workshops. The exquisite cultural relics such as oracle bones, bronz vessels and jades unearthed here constitute the unique cultural content of Yin Xu and demonstrate the imposing grandeur of this capital city of the Late Shang Period. The aerial extent of the property currently being nominated for inscription on the World Heritage List covers a 642-hectare area by the Huanhe River. This area is archaeologically the best understood and has basically been thoroughly excavated and studied. The key sections of this area are the Palace and Ancestral Shrines Area and the Royal Tombs Area.

joint yan ,steamer with the inscription of "hao" abronze ceremonial instrument 78.1 centimeters in total height,46.4 centimeters in diameter ,and 39 kilograms in weight,it was unearthed from Fu Hao Tomb in 1976.

rectangular zun from the tomb of Fu Hao a bronze ceremonial instrument 45.9 centimeters in total height and 16.7 kilograms in weight,it was unearthed from Fu Hao Tomb in 1976.

The Palace and Ancestral Shrines Area of Yin Xu is located between the Xiaotun and Huayuanzhuang villages on the southern bank of the Huanhe River. The dimensions of the 71.5-hectare area are 1,000 meters north-south and 650 meters east-west. This is the most important component of Yin Xu. Thus far more than 80 house foundations made of rammed-earth have been discovered in this area. These large house foundations are scattered in an area centring on the village of Xiaotun. They are aligned according to the pattern of ancient Chinese palace architecture with main halls in the front, bedrooms in the rear, ancestral shrines on the left and altars on the right. The group of 53 house foundations excavated before 1937 form the main section of the Palace and Ancestral Shrines Area as well as the centre of the overall layout of the whole capital city of Yin Xu. Archaeologists have divided these foundations into three groups: Group A, B and C respectively. In addition to these, the tomb of Fu Hao and foundation site No. 54 excavated since the 1970s can be considered as the most important remains of this area. On the western and southern sides of the Palace and Ancestral Shrines Area runs a defensive trench. The trench runs for 1,100 meters north-south and then for 650 meters west-east. It is 10-20 meters wide and 5-10 meters deep. The northern and eastern ends of the ditch and at the Huanhe River thereby enclosing the Palace and Ancestral Shrines Area between it and the river. Thus it functions in a manner similar to city walls at other sites but also works as an effective flood-control system.     The house foundations of Group A are located in the northeastern section of the Palace and Ancestral Shrines Area with their northern and eastern sides facing the Huanhe River. Altogether 15 house foundations belong to this group, situated in an area the extent of which is 100 meters north-south and 90 meters east-west. Rectangular house foundations running from east to west are dominant among this group. The rest few of the foundations are shaped. On the whole, all of the foundations are also arranged from west to east. They form two blocks. The northern block contains 10 house foundations numbered as A1-A10. The southern block contains the remaining five foundations, A11-A15. Compared to the relatively large foundations A11, A12, and A13 in the southern block,those of the northern group are usually smaller. These buildings are the oldest of all the buildings in the Palace and Ancestral Shrines Area and are thought to be the foundations of palaces and residencies of the royal family of the Shang Dynasty. Foundation All on the southeastern part of Group A is the largest foundation in this group. It is also one of the most typical in the whole palace and Ancestral Shrines Area. It is 46.7 meters long east-west and 10.7 meters wide north-south therefore covering an area of nearly 500 m2. A total of 34 plinths were discovered on the foundation, 10 of which were made of bronze. This is rare not only in China but also elsewhere in the world.

The house foundations of Group B are located to the southwest of the house foundations of Group A. These house foundations cover an area of 200 meters north-south and 100 meters east-west. 21 rammed-earth foundations belong to this group. The rectangular house foundations with longer east-west sides dominate this group and most of the foundations face south. The house foundations in this group are aligned symmetrically on both sides of an imaginary north-south meridian line. Most of them are extremely large and structurally complicated. They are also linked to each other. Of these house foundations, 17 face south and four face east. A densely packed sacrificial area is located to the south of Group B. These house foundations are considered to be the ancestral shrines of the Shang royal house. The most typical of the house foundations in Grop B are house foundations B1 and B8. House foundation B1is located in the northern part of Group B. It is almost square in shape and it is 11.3m long south-north and 11.8 long east-west.falls to the middle of the imaginary median line with half lying on one side and half on the other. It can therefore be consid-ered to be the centre of the house foundations in Group B. House foundation B8, located in the middle of Group B, is composed of four parts. It is 85 meters long north-south, 14.5 meters wide east-west and it covers an area of1,233 m2. A total of 153 stone plinths were unearthed from this foundation. This foundation is the biggest and most magnificent in the Palace and Ancestral Shrines Area.

rectangular jia,wine vessel from the tomb of Fu Hao a bronze ceremonial instrument 67 centimeters high,25 centimeters in diameter,and 19.2 kilograms in weight,it was unearthed from Fu Hao Tomb in 1976

the rectangular ding with flat feet from the tomb of Fu Hao  a bronze ceremonial instrument 42.4 centimeters in height,33.3 centimeters in diameter,25.1 centimeters wide,and 17 kilogrms in weight,it was unearthed from Fu Hao Tomb in 1976

The house foundations of Group C are located to the southwest of the house foundations of Group B. 17 symmetyically aligned rammed-earth house foundations belong to this group. All these house foundations are comparatival small. House foundation C1 is the largest in this group. It is 17 meters long north-south and 20 meters wide east-west. There are eight stone plinths on its mirthern side. House foundations in Group C are considered to be foundations of the buildings that housed the altars of the royal family of the Shang Dynasty.      Housd foundation No.54, located to the southeast of the house foundations of Group B, was excavated in the early 1980s. Buildings standing in the north, south and west of the site form a semi-closed complex covering a total area of 5,000 m2. This house foundation is located near the western bank of the Huanhe River and is shaped like the Chinese character∞°, with the concave portion facing east. The construction of the house is careful and precie and is clearly an early form of the Chinese siheyuan, quadrangle dwelling. It is the most important house foundation found at the Palace and Ancestral Shrines Area since the 1950s.      The famous Tomb of Fu Hao, located to the southwest of the house foundations in Group C, is one of the most important archaeological discoveries in the Palace and Ancestral Shrines Area of Yin Xu since 1928. It is the only perfectly intact tomb of a member of the royal family of the Shang Dynaety discovered since the start of scientific excavations at Yin Xu. The tomb is 5.6 meters long north-south and 4 meters wide east-west. It is 7.5 meters deep. Above ground on top of the tomb was a hall called muxinzong in the oracle bone inscriptions. There 16 sacrificial victims in the tomb along with a total of 1,928 exquisite burial accessories. These accessories in-cluded 468 bronze, 755 jade and 564 bone artefacts. There were also over 6,800 cowry shells most likely used as currency during the Shang times. The large number and superb craftsmanship of the burial accessories bear evidence for the advanced level of Shang handicraft industry and have truly deserved the role they now have as one of the national treasures of China. Based on the stratigraphic relationship of the tomb to other remains near it and on the 'Fu Hao' inscription on most of the bronze vessels, archaeologists have come to the conclusion that this was the tomb of Fu Hao one of the consorts of Wu Ding the 23rd king of the shang Drnasty.This tomb is the only royal Shang tomb that can reliably be tied to a person mentioned in the oracle bone inscriptions and thereby also be accerately dated and evaluated in terms of the social status of the deceased.

Numerous pits containing bovine shoulder blades and turtle plastrons have been found distributed within the Palace and Ancestral Shrines Area of Yin Xu. Since the end of the 19th century when oracle bone inscriptions were first discovered, a total number of about 150,000 shoulder blades and turtle plastrons have been found at Yin Xu. This hae taken the world by surprise. While the existence of a Shang dynasty was known from Chinese historical sources, no one ever imagined the existence of such a rich archive of first hand information about the Shang. The most famous pits containing shoulder blades and turtle plaetrons are Pit YH127, the pit south of Xiaotun village, and Pit H3 east of Huayuanzhuang village. Pit YH127 was discovered in 1936. It is located in the central western part of the Palace and Ancestral Shrines Area and contained more than 17,000 pieces of inscribed bones. The pit to the south of Xiaotun village was discovered in 1973. It contained over 5,000 inscribed pieces. Pit H3 to the east of Huayuanzhuang village in the southeatern part of the Palace and Ancestral Shrines Area was discovered in 1991. It contained 1,583 pieces of shoulde blades of which more than 500 were inscribed. The inscriptions cover a wide range of aspects of the Shnag social life including sacrificial offerings, hunting, agriculture, astronomy and military affairs. These pits have provided invaluable material for the study of Shang Dynasty and have justifiably been called the earliest archival houses of China.      The Royal Tombs Area of Yin Xu is located on the highland between the Xibeigang of Houjiazhuang village and northern part of Wuguancun village at the northern bank of the Huanhe River, across the river from the Palace and Ancestral Shrines Area. It is a very important part of Yin Xu. It covers an area 450 meters long east-west and 250 meters wide north-south, alto-gether 11.3 hectares. It can be divided into two parts:the eastern and the western parts. Since 1934, 13 large royal tombs and more that 2,000 attendant tombs and sacrificial pits have been excavated. The western part contains eight of the royal tombs. These tombs are arranged in four pairs, one tomb in the north, the other in the south, with the pairs running from west to east. Tombs M1500 and M1217 are the western most pair while tombs M1001 and M1550 are the eastern most. To the northeast of the centre of the area is tomb M1004 and to the southeast is its pair M1002. To the northwest of the centre is tomb M1003, while the unfinished tomb M1567 is in the middle of the area. The eastern section of the Royal Tombs Area contains five large tombs. Tomb M1400 has four tomb passages, tombs M1443, M1129 and 50WGKM1 have two, while the remaining one, M260, has only one thereby resembling the Chinese characters '亚'，'中' or '甲', respectively. They face either north or south. Scholars believe that these two groups of large tombs are the royal tombs of the Late Shang Period.

gu with the inscription of "Fu ji"  a bronze ceremonial instrument 56 centimeters in total height and 15 centimeters in diameter,it was unearthed from Tomb No 856 south of Xiaomintun in Yin Xu in 1977.It is now in the collections of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

jade phoenix  a decorative article 136. centimeters long and 0.7 centimeter thick, it was unearthed from Fu Hao Tomb in 1976 and is in the collections of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

The most typical of these tombs are tombs M1001, M1217, M260 and 50WGKM1. Tomb M1001 is located in the western section of the Royal Tombs Area. It has four tomb passages. The tomb chamber itself is shaped like the Chinese character 'AU'. The chamber is 18.9 meters long north-south and 21.3 meters wide east-west. The depth from the entrance of the tomb to the bottom is 10.5 meters. The four tomb passages are downward sloping. The eastern, western, southern, and northern tomb passages are 14.3, 11, 30.7, and 19.5 meters long respectively. The floor of the tomb chamber is covered with 92 cypress boards each 2-4 meters long. All the four walls of the chamber are covered with huge blanks. The longest of these blanks is 6 meters long. These boards are paainted red, engraved with patterns and inlaid with animal teeth. The number of sacrifi-cial victims inside and outside of the actral tomb chamber is 225. In addition, the tomb contained a large number of exquisite burial accessories. This tomb is relatively old among these tomb and is considered to be the tomb of King Wu Ding, the 23rd Shang King.      Tomb M1217 is located in the southwestern part of the western section of the Royal Tombs Area. It also has four tomb passages and is ‘亚’-shaped. The tomb chamber is 18.4 meters long north-south and 18.1 wide east-west. The depth from the entrance of the tomb to the bottom is 15.4 meters. The four tomb paeeages are 28.9, 25.00, 60.40 and 41.55 meters long respectibely. With the aerial extent of 1,803 m2 it is the largest tomb with the longest tomb passages in the Royal Tombs Area.      Tomb 50WKGM1 is located in the northeastern part of the eastern section of the Royal Tombs Area. It has two tomb passage. The tomb chamber is 14 meters long north-south and 12 meter wide east-west. The depth from the entrance to the bottom of the tomb is 7.2 meters. The coffin chamber is 6.3 meters long north-south and 5.2 meters wide east-west. It is 2.5 meters high. The bottom of the coffin is constructed with more than 60 huge logs. The tomb contained 79 human sacrificial victims, a large number of burial accessories including ding, gui , gu, jue and ge bronze ritual vessels, and jade and stone artefacts. A stone qing that was un-earthed in this tomb is 84 mm long and 2.5 mm thick. On the front it has a crouching tiger motif. The motif is engraved with strong lines making the tiger seen full of life and vigour. This stone qing is the biggest musical instrument unearthed at Yin Xu as well as a rare piece among ancient Chinese musical instruments thus far found.      Tomb M260 is located on the southern part of the eastern section of the Royal Tombs Area. With just one tomb passage, the tomb chamber is 9.6 meters long north-south and 8.1 meters wide east-west. The depth from the entrance to the bottom of the tomb is 8.1 meters. The bottom of the coffin chamber is made with 14 huge planks and the walls are made of 36 huge logs. The number of human sacrificial victims found in this tomb was 37. The famous Simuwu rectangular ding, the biggest bronze vessel thus far unearthed in China, came from this tomb.

Scattered among the royal tombs in both sections of the Royal Tombs Area are more than 2,000 smaller graves. Of these, 1,383 located in the eastern part and 104 located in the western part have been excavated. Apart from a few that were tombs of attendants, most of them are sacrificial pits. They are believed to be the remains of sacrificial victims victims, which the Shang kings offered to their ancestors. The pits are rectangular of square, tightly concentrated and aligned in regular rows. They contain the remains of thousands of human animal victims. Most of the victims were young and there are also women and children. Each pit contains the remains of 8 to 10 human victims. In the 191 sacrificial pits alone excavated in 1976 there were 1,178 human sacrifi-cial victims. The existence of the sacrififcial pits has provided evidence for the brutal practice of human sacrifice connected to the Shang ritual system.      A large number of clan settlements, tombs, and ancient workshops are located within the pro-tection and buffer zones included in this nomination of Yin Xu for inscription on the Word Heritage List. Settlement sites are also densely distributed in the areas south and east of Xiaotun, west of Wangyukou and the Heihe road. A comparatively large settlement site dated to the Late Shang period was also discovered to the west of Xiaotun village. Here the excabators unearthed house foundations, storage and ash pits as well as roads. They also discovered large quantities of pottery vessels, stone knives and sickles, and other types of tools. On the northern and northeastern side of Xiaotun there are several bronze and jade workshop sites. More than 3,500 pieces of ceramic moulds and large quantities of bronze fragments have been discovered at the bronze workshop to the northeast of the Xiaotun village. This is the royal Shang bronze workshop prducing bronze ritual vessels so important in Shang ritual life. At the jade workshop situated to the north of the Xiaotun village, the excavators found large quantities of jade pieces, bronze knibes, grinding stones, and delicate jade carvings. This was a rather large jade workshop located within the capital area. In recent years, a number of important Late Shang tombs have been found within Yin Xu. These include tomb M54 located to the east of Huayuanzhuang.These tombs have contained large numbers of bronzes, ceramics, jades, and bone artefacts.      Since the discovery of oracle bones in 1899 and the start of scientific excavations at Yin Xu in 1928, a capital city with a complex layout of house foundations, settlement, and workshops have been discovered at Yin Xu. These structural remains together with oracle bones,bronze, jade, ceramic and stone artefacts have revealed the brilliant Bronze Age civilization that once existed there during the Late Shang Period. These finds have established Yin Xu as the first Chinese capital the existence of which has been verified by historical sources as well as archaeological excavations. Archaeological excavations at Yin Xu over the years have constantly expanded our knowledge of the site and have highighted its importance. In recent years, in qarticular, new astonishing discoveries have been made one after the other. The discoveries of Tomb M160 in Guojiazhuang village in 1990, Pit H3 east of Huanyuanzhuang village in 1991,Middle Shang City morth of the Huanhe River in 1999,and of Tomb M54 east of Huayuanzhuang have astonished academic circles at home and abroad and have further proved the extraordinary value and potential of Yin Xu. Judging by the current situation of excavations at Yin Xu and their range of coverage, large quantities of archaeo-logical remains within the area nominated for inscription on the World Heritage List are yet to be discovered and properly protected. These remains will surely help people to gain new knowledge of the past. It may be predicted that if our nomination is succesful, the known boundaries of the capital area of Yin Xu will surely be expanded by archaeological excavations and scientific study. Yin Xu as a common cultural heritage of the whole humankind should definitely be out under better protection.

Removal of turtle plastrons and ox shoulder blades out of Pit YH127(courtesy of the Institute of History and Philology,Academia Sinica,Taiwan)