We call the Shang Dynasty "Yin" or "Yin Shang", what does "Yin" refer to?
The "Yin" here refers to the geographical view, that is, the geographical location. So, what is the "Yin" of the Shang Dynasty?
Professor Zhu Yanmin.
Professor Zhu Yanmin of the School of History of Nankai University said: The academic community is controversial about the "Yin" geographical view, and even the ancients had misunderstandings. The "Preface to Shangshu" mistakenly records "will be the first house Yin" as "will govern Bo Yin". "Shangshu Justice" was influenced by it and commented: "In this preface, Yin successively, Bo is a great name, and Yin is another name in Bo. He also said: "Yin, another name of Bo, then Bo Yin is a capital." In fact, Yin is Yin, Bo is Bo, and it is naturally incorrect to confuse Bo Yin and say that it is a place.
Nowadays, there are still scholars who set the place of "Yin" in Yanshi Xi'an, Henan Province according to the misremembered memory of "Jiangzhi Bo Yin", and do not distinguish between "Bo" and "Yin", which is also wrong, and this conclusion is not only wrong in the literature, but also has no evidence in archaeology.
Many modern and contemporary scholars have studied the "Yin" place of hope. China's famous historian Fu Sinian's "Yanyin" place "Baohe Ji between the east and the river, Qinyang in the west, thousands of miles away, can be named Yin." It is believed that "Yin is the name of the region, like one of the states in ancient Kyushu", and "it is not the proper name of a city and a place". Therefore, the "clothes" of Qinyang, the "Wei" of Huaxian County, the "Wei" of Qi County, the "Wei Yu" between Qili, and the five places of Yinxu in Anyang are all called "Yin" land.
Professor Zhu Yanmin believes that such a statement is incorrect. He explained that after the name "Yin" became the name of the country, the place it referred to was certainly large, and could include the entire territory of the Yin Dynasty, not just the upper places. However, the "Yin" place, which is the name of the country, especially the "Yin" moved by Pangeng, can only be a specific location, and cannot refer to a large area. "Yin" derives from a specific place name.
As for the origin of the name of the "Yin" place, clues should be found in the oracle bone inscriptions. There is no word "Yin" in the oracle bone inscription, but there is the word "clothes". Professor Zhu Yanmin believes that "Yin" comes from "clothes". The evolution of the oracle bone inscription "Yi" into the "Yin" in the literature should be caused by the ancient communication of the two characters. "Shangshu Kanghe": "There is a world in the world. "The Book of Rites: The Mean": "One clothes and the world." It can be seen that "Yin" and "clothes" are connected.
Professor Zhu believes that the name of "Yin" in Pangeng's relocation of the capital should come from the name of the "clothing" place in the Anyang area. In 1959, an oracle bone was unearthed at the site of the Shang Dynasty in Dasikong Village, Yinxu, Anyang, which was engraved with "Xin Zhen: In Clothes"."It belongs to the Bin group divination of the Wuding period. Among them, "clothes" is the name of the place, and the divination indicates that the place of the chastity is in the "clothes". Mr. Yang Baocheng, an archaeologist in China, believes: "The unearthing of this divination accurately shows that the name of the Shang Dynasty in Yinxu in Anyang is Yinye, so the name of the Shang Dynasty is also from this place name." ”
According to Professor Zhu Yanmin, according to the literature, "Yin", as a place name, had existed long before the Shang Dynasty. This "Bamboo Book Chronicle": "In the thirty-third year of Emperor Mang, the Marquis of Shang moved to Yin. In the ninth year of Kong Jia, the Marquis of Yin returned to Shangqiu. "Shang Hou" and "Yin Hou" are undoubtedly the ancestors of the Shang family. and "Bamboo Book Chronicle": "Prince Yin Haibin is obscene and obscene in Youyi, and the king of Yi Mianchen kills and lets him go." It is the old Yin lord Jiawei fake teacher in Hebo, to cut down the easy, destroy it, and then kill its monarch Mianchen. From this, it can be inferred that "Marquis Yin" refers to Wang Hai. Judging from the names of famous places such as "Youyi", "Hebo" and "Shangqiu" (i.e., Shangqiu in the Zhanghe River Basin), this "Yin" is likely to be the "clothing" land in the oracle bone inscription near Anyang, which is close to Zhangshui. In this way, the Yin moved by Pangeng is not a new place, but a return to the hometown of the first business.