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Tales from the Yin Ruins

By staff reporter HUO JIANYING Chinatoday

A pit filled with inscribed oracle bones found at the Yin Ruins.

The Yin Ruins mark what was once the magnificent capital of the ancient Shang Dynasty (14th-11th centuries B.C.) that changed its name after moving to Yin. The city, along with the history of the entire dynasty, remained buried and obscured from actual human cognizance for more than 3,300 years. It engendered a body of myths and legends that were encapsulated 300 years ago in the classic volume of Chinese mythology  Canonization of the Gods ( Feng Shen Yan Yi ). This work of literature depicts the Yin Dynasty as a world inhabited by deities and demons as well as human beings. It was upon the ruins’ discovery 100 years ago that the veil of mystery over the Yin Dynasty and its capital finally fell.

The Discovery of Oracle Bones

Characters carved on an oracle bone.

One hundred years ago, Xiaotun was just one of an abundance of small farming villages in the Central Plains area. A villager named Li Cheng worked as a barber in his spare time, but his skills were so lacking that he often inflicted cuts and nicks on the heads of his customers. Lacking money to buy medicine, Li used a special powder, ground from fragments of bone and tortoise shell that he and his fellow villagers frequently dug up when hoeing their fields, to stop the bleeding and prevent inflammation. He learned the name and utility of this traditional Chinese medicine ingredient from books on the subject. The fragments, known as “Dragon’s Bones,” were mammalian bone and chelonian shell fossils, and their function was to “nourish muscles, prevent decomposition, stop bleeding and calm the nerves.” Xiaotun villagers would sell the bones and shells unearthed from their fields for a pittance, one kilo being exchanged for about the price of six shaobing (palm-sized baked cakes).

In 1899, Wang Yirong, chancellor of the Directorate of Education (Guozijian), the only official Qing Dynasty- administered university, fell ill and dispatched his servant to the pharmacy to fetch some medicine. Upon his servant’s return, Wang, as always, checked the medicinal ingredients and their quality against the prescription, but on this occasion gave the “Dragon’s Bones” a particularly close scrutiny. Wang was an accomplished scholar, philologist and collector, and the character-like marks on these “Dragon’s Bones” resembled those he had seen on ancient bronze vessels. Wang immediately sent his servant to buy up all the “Dragon’s Bones” in the pharmacy. After further examination and study, Wang Yirong’s suspicions that these inscriptions originated in an earlier and as yet unknown age were confirmed. He was able to distinguish characters on these bones and shells that depicted the sun, the moon, a mountain, water and rain, and also the names of Yin Dynasty monarchs. Wang Yirong then embarked on an exhaustive medicine-buying spree, sparing no expense until he had bought up all the engraved “Dragon’s Bones” in stock at Beijing pharmacies as well as those held by antique traders. Wang finally collected more than 1,500 pieces of oracle bones, the bulk of which originated in Xiaotun Village in Henan’s Anyang.

Wang Yirong’s research was cut short by his suicide in 1900, when the Eight-Power Allied Forces invaded Beijing. After his death, most of his collection was handed on to his friend Liu E, who carried forward Wang’s undertaking. Liu expanded Wang’s collection of oracle bones to more than 5,000 pieces, and in 1903 published a compilation of the rubbings he had made of them entitled Tie Yun Cang Gui (The Tortoise Shell Collection of Tie Yun, Liu E’s official name being Tie Yun ). The book, and the data it disclosed about oracle bones, sparked off a new wave of research among Chinese and overseas scholars.

These engraved bones and shells were actually Shang Dynasty divinations — a main aspect of the ancestor and spirit worship that prevailed at that time. Divination as regards a specific event, whether out of the ordinary or an aspect of daily life, was accomplished by heating animal bones and shells until they cracked. The direction, length and thickness of these cracks were then interpreted and a prophesy was made on their basis. Records of such matters and their divination were stored in an archive in the household cellar. In 1936, archaeologists unearthed more than 170,000 pieces of inscribed oracle bone and explanatory records from a pit in Xiaotun Village. They describe various activities of the Shang Dynasty royal family, aristocrats and slave owners and as such are an invaluable source of information on the politics, economics and society of that remote period.

Another reason why the discovery of these oracle bones was so significant in Chinese philological history was that they banished the myth that Cang Jie, said to have been court historian to the Yellow Emperor, created Chinese characters. In addition to giving an insight into daily life three millennia ago, oracle bones also constitute a record of the course of development, from pictograms to characters, of the Chinese written language. Pictograms on pottery dating back to pre-history are primarily drawings, but those on oracle bones evolved from specific pictorial depictions and comply with the basic structure of Chinese characters.

Over past decades of research, some 4,500 characters — roughly one-third of the total — on oracle bones have been deciphered. Jiaguwen , or Shell and Bone Script, is acknowledged as the earliest Chinese characters.

The Discovery of the Yin Ruins

The Yin Ruins are mentioned several times in Chinese historian Sima Qian’s Records of the Historian , but their actual location is not clear. It was the wealth of information deciphered from jiaguwen on oracle bones that enabled Chinese archaeologists to solve the riddle of the Yin Ruins and their whereabouts. Having used the oracle bones to pinpoint the exact location of the site, archaeologists conducted 15 excavations at Xiaotun between 1928 and 1937. They discovered the remains of palaces, temples and tombs dating back to the middle and late periods of the Shang Dynasty, and also unearthed large amounts of bronze, jade and pottery artifacts. It was established beyond doubt that Henan’s Anyang, where Xiaotun Village is located, had been site of the capital of the Shang Dynasty, since referred to by Chinese archaeologists and historians as the Yin Ruins.

Possibly the most dramatic discovery in Anyang was that of the Si Mu Wu Quadripot in the tomb area of the Yin Ruins in 1939, most particularly because it was successfully hidden from the invading Japanese troops.

Mr. Wu Peiwen, on a visit to see the Si Mu Wu Quadripot that he discovered 60 years ago.

This secret excavation happened one night in February 1939, when a neighbor of Wu Peiwen, resident of Anyang’s Wuguan Village, came to tell him that there might be something precious buried in his plot. When Wu and his neighbor probed the soil with a long pole they struck a hard object. As archaeologists had carried out excavations in the area, it seemed likely that they had hit upon an ancient relic. Wu Peiwen returned to the village and called on several more villagers to help with the digging. By daybreak only a small section of the hard object was visible. When Wu jumped into the pit to take a closer look he saw that the exposed section of the relic body bore exquisite carvings. In order to prevent the Japanese from discovering this precious artifact, the villagers refilled the pit. The next night 40 people came to dig the object up, and their efforts finally revealed a huge bronze quadripot. On the third night they carried the pot to Wu Peiwen’s courtyard and buried it there.

The villagers had no idea that they had unearthed the world’s largest bronze artifact, but in any event were determined to keep it from the clutches of the Japanese invaders. After letting it be known that they were looking for a buyer, an antique dealer soon came forward and unhesitatingly offered a purchase price of 200,000 silver dollars - an amount so astronomical as to be inconceivable to the Wuguan villagers. But payment of this huge price was conditional upon the pot’s being cut into sections, as otherwise the buyer would not be able to steal it away from under Japanese eyes. The villagers refused, and the deal fell through. In order to hide the quadripot from the Japanese, the villagers took it to another site, and filled the pit in Wu Peiwen’s courtyard with other antiques that were subsequently taken away by Japanese soldiers.

In 1945, after the Japanese invaders were defeated, the quadripot was taken to Nanjing. Today it forms part of the collection of the National Museum of Chinese History in Beijing. Archaeological studies show that the quadripot, weighing 832.84 kilograms and standing 133 centimeters tall, dates back to the Shang Dynasty. It is known as the Si Mu Wu Quadripot due to these three characters being carved on its interior. Tripots and quadripots — ding in Chinese — were symbols of power in ancient China. After Yu the Great succeeded the throne, legend has it that he cast nine ding in the gold he had been presented as tributes by the nine provinces under his rule. Throughout the succeeding eras, the ding continued to symbolize power, its dimensions and weight indicating the rank and status of its owner. Experts believe that the Si Mu Wu ding was cast by a monarch of the Shang Dynasty in memory of his mother. Its archaeological value is unchallengeable, as the ding later unearthed from a queen’s tomb at the Yin Ruins is barely an eighth of its size.

First Heroine of China

The name Fu Hao is mentioned 200 times in oracle bone jiaguwen , whose decipherings, along with new discoveries at the Yin Ruins, reveal that she was the wife of a Shang king named Wu Ding. Fu Hao was also the first textually recorded woman general in China. Her tomb was discovered in 1976, and its excavation has made it possible to gain an impression of this distinguished woman from remote history.

The tomb of Fu Hao is located in the western palace area of the Yin Ruins. As it is one of the rare instances of an ancient tomb that has not been robbed, the identity of its owner is clear. Fu Hao’s small tomb chamber contains all her daily life necessities. Archaeologists unearthed from it 1,928 burial objects, including 400 bronze, 750 jade and 460 bone vessels as well as many stone, ivory, pottery and seashell artifacts, and 6,800 shells that were legal tender during the Shang Dynasty. Half of the bronze vessels are engraved with Fu Hao’s name. Among them is an exquisite triple yan — an ancient boiling and steaming vessel weighing 138 kilograms. Single yan have been unearthed elsewhere, but the triple Fu Hao yan is the only one of its kind so far found. Judging by its weight and size, it was used for ceremonial and divinatory purposes rather than cooking. The discovery of this yan corroborates jiaguwen records that Fu Hao presided over worshipful ceremonies and divinations.

The Fu Hao tomb has also yielded four bronze mirrors, four bronze yue (ancient battle-axes) and more than 130 other bronze weapons, some of which have obviously been used in battle. One of the yue is 40 centimeters long, 38 centimeters across and weighs nine kilograms. It is carved with Fu Hao’s name and the image of two tigers fighting over a human head. Judging from its weight and design, the battle-axe is a symbol of Fu Hao’s military power rather than an actually utilized weapon, and could well symbolize the supreme mandate to command military operations that the Shang king bestowed on Fu Hao. Oracle bones record that in a series of battles fought during the reign of King Wu Ding, Fu Hao marshaled troops on the battlefield in the king’s stead on more than one occasion. She once led 13,000 men in a victorious battle against the Qiang tribe, and was the most meritorious general of the Wu Ding period.

That King Wu Ding greatly admired Fu Hao and regularly prayed for her health and longevity is repeatedly recorded on Xiaotun oracle bones. Fu Hao’s status was equal to that of the king’s 60 or so other wives, and she was awarded an independent fief. The brave and beautiful Fu Hao, however, suffered poor health and died before the king.

King Wu Ding buried Fu Hao in the palace area — a rare honor — and built a palatial hall above her tomb . Archaeological excavations have established that 11 of the royal tombs in the Yin Ruins were emptied of their riches millennia ago by tomb raiders. Fu Hao’s tomb being the only one left intact can be attributed to its uncommon location in the palace area, under a palace hall.

On July 13, 2006 the Yin Ruins in Henan’s Anyang were added to the World Cultural Heritage List.