On February 26, the new Yinxu Museum was officially opened in Anyang, Henan Province. On the shore of Huanshui, a bronze museum rises from the ground, facing the ruins of the Yinxu Palace and the temple across the river. Nearly 4,000 sets of bronze, pottery, jade, oracle bones and other cultural relics are displayed in the museum, and more than three-quarters of the precious cultural relics are on display for the first time, depicting a panorama of the Shang Dynasty.
Tang Jigen, former director of the Anyang Workstation of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and chair professor of Southern University of Science and Technology, participated in part of the work of the exhibition, but after all, he was in Shenzhen and had limited time on site. On the day when the news of the imminent opening of the new museum was announced, Tang Jigen specially left a message to Li Xiaoyang, director of the Anyang Municipal Bureau of Cultural Relics, to express his greetings. He knows that behind the opening of the new museum, the efforts of archaeologists have been condensed. They often slept in the office, including Zhao Qingrong, deputy director of the Yinxu Museum, and He Yuling and Yue Zhanwei of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, who participated in the exhibition. ”
The Shang Dynasty, also known as the Yin Shang Dynasty, was the second dynasty in Chinese history and the first dynasty in China to retain "dynastic documents". Archaeology connects reality with imagination, correspondence between documents and relics, and gives flesh and blood to the characters written on the oracle bone inscriptions. For Tang Jigen, who has worked in Yinxu for 27 years, the Shang Dynasty is inextricably linked to contemporary life. "Today's feasts and blessings all come from Shang culture, and many contents of modern life are inherited from the Shang Dynasty. He said.
In 1928, archaeologist Dong Zuobin wielded the first spade in Xiaotun Village, a northwestern suburb of Anyang City, which opened the prelude to the continuous scientific excavation of Yin Ruins by Chinese archaeologists, which has been nearly 100 years now. Yinxu has become the site of the ancient capital with the longest excavation time, the largest number of times and the largest area in China. In the hands of generations of archaeologists, the outline of the "Dayi Shang" has gradually become clear.
The new hall of Yinxu Museum, the exhibition hall of "Great Shang Civilization". Courtesy of Yinxu Museum.
A piece of oracle bones shocked the world".
According to the "Historical Records", the founder of the Shang Dynasty was called "Tang", and after the founding of the country, it passed on 17 generations and 31 kings. According to documentary data, the Shang Dynasty moved the capital five times after its establishment and built six capitals. The last move of the capital was about 1290 B.C., the 20th Shang king Pangeng led his subjects to move to the shore of Huanshui, that is, near Xiaotun in Anyang, Henan, and then followed for more than 270 years and did not move again, ushering in the prosperous era of the late Shang.
The Book of Poetry: Shang Song records: "Shang Yi wings, the extreme of the four directions. The Yinxu Wangcheng, which was haunted by the floods, gradually became one of the largest cities in the world at that time, and was known as the "Dayi merchants".
Yinxu has become the first capital site of the late Shang Dynasty that can be examined in the history of our country and confirmed by archaeological excavations. "A piece of oracle bones shocks the world" and "Without the archaeology of Yinxu, there will be no Chinese archaeology" is the evaluation of the world.
Before being discovered, the oracle bones underwent a long process of dispersion. Before 1899, oracle bones were constantly found in the farmland north of Xiaotun Village and south of the Huan River in Anyang County, Henan Province, and were sold to pharmacies as "keels", and some "keels" were also ground into powder and used for ** trauma.
The first to discover the oracle bone inscription was the Qing Dynasty**, the goldsmith Wang Yirong. Legend has it that Wang Yirong, who was the priest of the wine of the country at the time, took medicine due to illness, and found that the "dragon bone" was engraved on the turtle plate in traditional Chinese medicine. After repeated scrutiny, Wang Yirong preliminarily confirmed that the text on it was a relic of the Shang Dynasty. He is also known as the "Father of Oracle".
In 1928, Dong Zuobin was instructed to investigate the dispersion of oracle bones in Yinxu in Anyang, and came to the conclusion that "the oracle bone excavation is indeed unfinished", which opened the scientific archaeological excavation of Yinxu. Subsequently, Zheng Zhenxiang, Liu Yiman, Yang Xizhang, Yang Baocheng and other famous archaeologists all left their figures in Yinxu.
For more than 90 years, important relics such as the palace area, the residence area, the royal tomb area, the tomb area, and the handicraft workshop area of Yinxu, as well as the adjacent Huanbei, the capital city of the middle Shang Dynasty, have been discovered one after another, and a large number of precious cultural relics such as oracle bone inscriptions, bronzes, pottery, jade and other precious cultural relics have been unearthed, which has basically clarified the distribution range and structural layout of Yinxu, and provided a foundation for exploring the archaeological culture of the early Shang Dynasty and even the Xia Dynasty.
There are many kinds of relics in Yinxu, and the number is extremely considerable. Among them, the most important is the unearthed 150,000 oracle bones, with a single word number of more than 4,000 words, involving all aspects of the Shang Dynasty's politics and life, and is a direct historical material for reconstructing the history of Yin Shang letters. It pushes back the history of Chinese letters by about 1,000 years, confirming the existence of the "Shang" dynasty in ancient historical records.
In addition, there are tens of thousands of pottery, about 1,500 bronze ritual vessels, about 3,500 bronze weapons, about 2,600 jade objects, more than 6,500 stone tools, and more than 30,000 bone tools.
Wang Wei, a famous archaeologist, believes that after the establishment of the Shang Dynasty, it inherited the system of bronze vessels and jade ritual vessels of the Xia Dynasty, and gave it a new connotation, and the craftsmanship was more proficient. The copper smelting of the Shang Dynasty spread to the surrounding areas, exerting a strong influence on the surrounding countries and leading the development of China's bronze civilization.
Today, the most Chinese bronze and the treasure of the National Museum of China, the stepmother Wuding, was unearthed in 1939 from the Yinxu site in Anyang, Henan. Dading is cast with a plurality of pottery fans, the hollow tripod lug and the tripod body are cast separately and then cast together, under the conditions at that time, there is no close cooperation between two or three hundred people can not cast successfully.
The process of changing its name was also fraught with controversy. In 1959, Guo Moruo, then president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, researched the bronze inscription on the inner wall of the tripod and believed that the inscription of this Dafang tripod was the three words "Simu Wu". In the 70s of the last century, with the excavation of the tomb of the good woman (later) mother Xin Ding and others, more and more experts proposed that "Si Mu Wu" should be "Hou Mu Wu", because there is the meaning of "monarch". At the end of March 2011, this national treasure bronze was also renamed "Houmu Wuding" by the National Museum.
In November 2023, at the National Museum of China, the audience visited Wuding, the stepmother. Figure ic photo
The woman is good, the best specimen to study the history of the Shang Dynasty.
When it comes to Yinxu, I have to mention a legendary woman - a good woman. "Many people think that the woman is a name, but it is actually a title. 'Woman' is the title, 'good' is the name of the country and clan, and the original word is 'son'. Because the woman is a woman, according to the custom of the time, add the word "woman" next to the word "son" to write "good". Woman, that is, a woman from the country of the 'son' who has obtained the title of 'woman', is a bit similar to 'Zhao Ji' or 'Mrs. Mi'. Tang Jigen said.
Archaeological research is complex, while figure research has fascinating power. Because characters can directly hit the senses, the woman is such a person. "She was the queen of the Shang king Wuding, and she was a woman, condensing the rich historical information of the Shang dynasty. The Shang Dynasty was in one of the important stages of China's historical development: the 'kingdom' stage. She is an iconic figure in the kingdom society, which can be directly related to the kingdom society at that time, and is the best specimen for studying the history of the Shang Dynasty and popularizing the knowledge of the Shang Dynasty. Tang Jigen said.
In 1975, Zheng Zhenxiang, a Chinese archaeologist, presided over the archaeological excavation of Xigangdi (where the tomb of the woman is located) in Xiaotun Village, and in May 1976, the tomb of the woman who had been sleeping for 3,000 years was discovered.
When the tomb of the woman had just opened, Zheng Zhenxiang was shocked. What excites Zheng Zhenxiang the most is the inscription on the 109 bronzes with the word 'woman good' or 'good'. She realized that the 'woman hao' inscribed on the bronze was the spouse of the Shang king Wuding, who was frequently mentioned in the oracle bone inscriptions, and she was fully aware that she had met a Shang dynasty queen.
The tomb of Nuhao has unearthed extremely rich and rare items, which can be called a treasure trove of Shang Dynasty art 3,000 years ago. There are as many as 1,928 burial artifacts in the tomb, including bronze, jade, gemstone, stone, pottery, ivory, bone, mussel, etc., as well as more than 6,000 seashells and red snails.
Zheng Zhenxiang pointed out that among the 11 Shang Dynasty royal tombs found in Yinxu, the other tombs have long been stolen, and only the tomb of the woman is intact. It is the only archaeological discovery that can confirm its age and identity with the oracle bones, and it is also the only Shang Dynasty royal tomb found so far that has not been stolen and destroyed.
The woman is so three-dimensional and plump. "She once helped the king count the oracle bones, met with representatives from all walks of life, that is, 'Duozheng', she loved beauty, liked makeup, and there were four bronze mirrors in the tomb, 500 bone hairpins, and 28 hostas. Tang Jigen used an analogy that the word "Yan" in the oracle bone inscription is a woman's understanding of having multiple hairpins on her head. The hairpin is equivalent to the cosmetics of modern women, and there are so many bone hairpins and hostas in the burial goods of the women's tomb, it can be seen that she was most likely a woman who liked to dress up during her lifetime.
In addition, the woman may also like to cook, and many cooking utensils have been unearthed in her tomb; Women must be very fond of collecting, with the burial goods include the jade phoenix of the Shijiahe culture, the hook-shaped jade pendant of the Hongshan culture, the jade Xuanji of the Dawenkou culture, etc., all of which are 'antiques' in the Shang period;The woman has also led soldiers to fight, given birth to children, and has a stable 'circle of friends'. In the oracle bones unearthed in Yin Ruins, there were characters such as Nuhao, Yabi, and Yaqi on the same piece of cloth at the same time. Moreover, in the tomb of the woman, there are burial goods with the inscriptions of Yabi and Yaqi, indicating that after the death of the woman, her friends sent her bronze vessels to be buried with her to express mourning. Tang Jigen said.
A piece of pottery fills the gap of "Chinese businessmen".
Referring to the major breakthroughs in archaeological and historical research of the Shang Dynasty in the past 20 years, the academic community generally believes that Huanbei ** "bears the brunt", which fills the gap of "Zhongshang" between Zhengzhou ** in the early Shang Dynasty and Yinxu in the late Shang Dynasty, and changes the concept of traditional "Yinxu".
Tang Jigen recalled that when he first graduated, he was assigned to the prehistoric archaeology research laboratory of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. "By chance, I joined the ** lecturer group to Yinxu and saw the Shang Dynasty pottery, bronze and bone tools in the archaeological team's showroom, which was very interesting. At that time, the famous archaeologists who participated in the excavation work in Anyang included Zheng Zhenxiang, Liu Yiman, Yang Xizhang and so on. They said that Anyang's field excavation and scientific research tasks were very heavy, and there was a great shortage of manpower. In this way, Tang Jigen switched from Neolithic to the study of the Shang Dynasty and began to directly participate in the excavation of the Yinxu site.
In the 70s of the last century, the archaeological community has established a chronological framework for the history of the Shang Dynasty. In this framework, Anyang Yinxu is equivalent to the late Shang Dynasty, and Zhengzhou** (discovered in the 50s of the last century), which is earlier than the Yinxu date, is designated as the early Shang Dynasty.
The young Tang Jigen questioned such a chronological framework of the Shang Dynasty with a master's degree. On the basis of his master's degree, he wrote a series of articles, proposing that the chronological framework of the Shang Dynasty should exist in the middle period between the early Shang and late Shang periods, in addition to the inappropriate division of the early and late periods, and that the remains of the middle Shang Dynasty are likely to be found in northern Henan and southern Hebei.
At first, my teacher Zheng Zhenxiang asked me to excavate the ruins of Yuyang Village, and build my own ** by sorting out the relics of Yuyang Village, and later I told Mr. Zheng that the relationship between Zhengzhou** and Yinxu was not so clear, so this became my master's ** topic. Tang Jigen said.
In the first year of doing **, Tang Jigen almost purely pulled the material. He used scissors to cut out the Shang Dynasty pottery shards and pottery ** that he could find, and pasted them on the walls around the dormitory. The 16-square-meter dormitory is almost plastered with pictures. "Looking at each other" with pottery shards every day cultivated Tang Jigen's sensitivity to Shang Dynasty artifacts.
Based on the observation of the characteristics of pottery, Tang Jigen faintly felt that there was a problem with the staging of Yinxu pottery in the academic community at that time. "At that time, it was proposed that Yinxu was divided into 4 phases, of which the first phase could be divided into two stages: early and late, but I think that the first phase was actually compressed over a long period of time, and the early stage of the first phase should be separated and become a separate stage. As a result, the concept of 'Chinese businessmen' loomed. ”
On the basis of the master's degree, Tang Jigen wrote a series of **, clearly putting forward the view of "mid-Shang period", but it has not been recognized for a long time. He realized that it was not enough to just write **, only by going to the field and finding specimens from the middle Shang period could the existence of the middle Shang period be confirmed.
In the mid-90s of the last century, Tang Jigen led an archaeological team to conduct archaeological investigations in Anyang, Henan Province and Handan, Hebei Province. On a windy day in 1996, Tang Jigen, together with Liu Yiman and others, explored the North Henan Cotton Textile Factory near Huayuanzhuang Village on the north bank of the Huanhe River in Anyang. Since the ground around the textile mill was paved with cement, everyone felt that there was no place to shovel and explore, so they decided to choose another location. Before leaving, Tang Jigen saw a small open space opposite the cotton mill, where some cabbage was planted. He decided to run over and take a look. Demonically, he trampled a cabbage crookedly. He bent down to pull the cabbage out, and saw a piece of pottery stained on the silky roots of the cabbage. Tang Jigen recognized at a glance that this was the pottery piece of the mid-Shang period he wanted. This discovery directly led to the archaeological excavation of the Huayuanzhuang site on the north bank of the Huanhe River the following year.
According to the ash pits, ash ditches and broken pottery fragments excavated in Huanbei Garden Village, Tang Jigen compiled an archaeological brief and submitted it to the journal "Archaeology". In the briefing, it was determined that these relics and relics belonged to the middle Shang Dynasty, and the relics and relics were sufficient to be divided into two small stages of the middle Shang Dynasty. However, the reviewers said that these conclusions were too bold and suggested that the conclusions be revised. Tang Jigen made minor adjustments according to the reviewers' opinions, but insisted on the basic opinions. After several back-and-forths, an important archaeological document in the history of Yinxu excavation, "1997 Huanbei Garden Village Excavation Briefing" was officially published. The briefing pointed out that the age of the pottery pieces unearthed at the Huayuanzhuang site in Huanbei is between Zhengzhou ** and Yinxu. The concept of the mid-Shang period was strengthened.
In 1998, taking the 70th anniversary of the archaeological excavation of Yinxu as an opportunity, Tang Jigen led the team to expand the excavation area near the Huayuanzhuang site in Huanbei, and preliminarily concluded that the area of the site was not less than 700,000 square meters.
The following year, Tang Jigen and his colleagues Jing Zhichun and Liu Zhongfu confirmed through exploration that the area of the site was at least 3 million square meters, and subsequently, an area of 4An ancient city of 7 square kilometers was explored. Tang Jigen led the team to make breakthroughs at many points, and explored a courtyard building with a width of 170 meters and a depth of 85 meters to 91 meters near the airport, with a courtyard area of 10,000 square meters in the middle, and more than 40 sacrificial pits were found near the steps.
At this point, an ancient city in the middle of the Shang Dynasty was finally discovered. Tang Jigen thought about it repeatedly and decided to name it "Huanbei**" and was soon recognized by the academic community. "It is a great honor to be able to name a ** in person, which is a great honor for archaeological work. Tang Jigen said.
The discovery of Huanbei** fills the missing link between the early Shang culture represented by Zhengzhou Erligang and the late Shang culture represented by Yinxu, and makes the archaeological chronological framework of Shang Dynasty history more perfect.
Let Yinxu "come alive".
During his work in Yinxu, Tang Jigen often encountered various illegal activities that destroyed the ruins. As a result, he began to vigorously promote the declaration of Yinxu as a world cultural heritage. After eight years of hard work, in 2006, Yinxu was successfully inscribed on the World Heritage List. "The inscription on the World Heritage List can make the world pay attention to Yinxu, which is conducive to the protection of Yinxu ruins, and is more conducive to integrating the value of the ruins into economic development, and ultimately benefiting the people. Tang Jigen said.
He Yuling, a researcher at the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and deputy director of the Anyang Workstation, believes that the greatest core value of the success of the World Heritage application lies in the recognition of the value of Yinxu by the whole world and the whole country, and the value of Yinxu can only be fully demonstrated through continuous archaeological excavation and research.
In the past 20 years, archaeologists have never stopped exploring Yin Ruins. From 2006 to 2011, the archaeological team excavated a number of large-scale Shang Dynasty roads in the north of Liujiazhuang Village. From 2015 to 2019, copper casting and bone-making workshops were discovered in the northern part of Huanbei, filling the gap in the handicraft production of the capital in the middle of the Shang Dynasty; From 2016 to 2019, archaeological discoveries confirmed that the Xindian site in Anyang was a large-scale bronze casting base ...... the late Shang Dynasty
While archaeological excavations and research continue to advance, the protection and revitalization of Yinxu have also entered a new chapter: the oracle bone inscription has been inscribed on the Memory of the World Register; "Regulations on the Protection and Management of Yinxu in Anyang, Henan Province" was promulgated; The construction of Yinxu National Archaeological Site Park began; Cultural tourism projects such as archaeological towns have been steadily promoted; A series of cultural and creative products such as oracle emojis, blind boxes, and ice cream have become popular models; The Museum of Chinese Characters and the Chinese Character Park have become ...... places for Internet celebrities to check in
The display and utilization of Yinxu need to adhere to the direction of the park, protect the site as a whole, and focus on the layout of the city, not limited to the movable cultural relics displayed indoors. Tang Jigen said that the word "park" has been proven to be an effective display and utilization direction of archaeological sites, and is increasingly loved by the public.
During the Spring Festival this year, in the series of activities of "lighting up Yinxu" carried out in the Yinxu Scenic Area of Anyang, the "Shang Dynasty Female God of War" woman Hao walked out of the oracle bone inscription and started a cross-time and space dialogue with the audience.
This is the first archaeological digital sapiens in China supported by archaeological data jointly created by Tang Jigen's research team and technology companies for three years. The woman's face, clothing, and accessories have been carefully studied and designed, based on documentary and archaeological findings. Tang Jigen believes that the good woman is the high-quality IP that activates and utilizes Yinxu. "Through digital technology, the woman can be 'resurrected', so that she has memory, knowledge, can speak, can chat, be familiar with the 'Tianyi businessman', remember her circle of friends, and recall the bits and pieces of ......Bingyue's expedition back thenImagine what a wonderful moment it would be to walk through the ruins at midnight, meet a good woman, and listen to her tell the beautiful legend of 'the Divine Destiny of the Bird, descending to give birth to business'."
The ultimate goal of building a digital woman is to truly realize "mutual learning among civilizations". "If we take the era of women's good people as a cross-section of time, in the same era, Mesopotamia lived Kashtiyash IV, and the Nile Valley lived Ramesses II, and China's women's good people were the best candidates to talk to other civilizations in parallel space. Tang Jigen said.
On February 16, 2024, the ruins of the Zongmiao of Yinxu Palace in Anyang, Henan, where the oracle bone cellars and women's tombs have become hot spots for check-in. Figure ic photo
When people think of the Shang Dynasty, it is easy to think of bronzes and oracle bone inscriptions. In Tang Jigen's view, every cultural relic is important, they all carry history, and throw one question after another to contemporary people. "For example, what is the function of bronze? What is the artifact of the king's era? Who is the Maker? Why was this artifact cast? What is the meaning of the ornamentation on the object? How is this artifact used? Have the relics been preserved during use? How long have similar artifacts been handed down? Asking questions from multiple perspectives is the basic way to understand and interpret cultural relics. ”
Tang Jigen believes that Yinxu only uncovers a part of the archaeology of the Shang Dynasty. For the Shang Dynasty, Yinxu was only the late stage of the entire dynasty; For Chinese history, it is only an era. For modern China, it is only a representative of civilization in the Yellow River Valley. Understanding Yinxu requires the depth of time, the spatial vision, and the correlation of different data. "The dwelling sites, handicraft workshops, and tombs unearthed by the excavations need to be linked, and the archaeological data needs to be linked to the oracle bone inscriptions. But association, or combination, is a huge challenge for scholars. ”
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