It all started back in 1899 with discoveries of some mysterious
Jiaguwen. These are inscriptions on bones and tortoise shells. They
were found at what turned out to be the ruins of the capital city
of the late Shang or Yin Dynasty located at Yinxu near Xiaotun
Village, Anyang City, Henan Province.
The site was excavated some 15 times from 1928 through 1937 as
the archaeologists looked back down the years to the time of the
San Dai, the Three Dynasties. This is at the very dawn of Chinese
history and comprises the Xia (c.2100-1600 BC), Shang (c.1600-1100
BC) and Zhou (c.1100-256 BC) Dynasties. There are few substantive
written records of these ancient days.
Generations of historians have dedicated themselves to
painstaking and meticulous study of the old texts looking for
credible historical accounts of the Three Dynasties. Their mission
was bit by bit to draw aside the curtain of time that cloaks the
boundaries between history and prehistory, civilization and
barbarism eventually to look in on the origins of Chinese
civilization.
Ten years after the founding of the People’s Republic of China a
breakthrough came in 1959. It was the result of the insight of the
renowned historian Xu Xusheng. His research had led him to believe
that the Xia people had been concentrated in the area of today's
west Henan Province and south Shanxi Province. And so Xu embarked
on an archaeological survey that led him to Erlitou in Yanshi
County, Henan Province. Later excavations at the site were to
reveal the foundations of two magnificent palaces. The early Bronze
Age, Erlitou culture has been dated to about 2100-1700 BC and
attributed to the Xia Dynasty.
Since the 1950s, archaeological work in Zhengzhou, the capital
of Henan Province, has reconstructed the early Shang culture as
represented by the Erligang culture. 1976 saw the exploration of
the Fuhao tomb at Yinxu, which further enriched people’s knowledge
of the Shang. Archaeologists also resumed other work at Yinxu that
had been suspended for a while. They unearthed the foundations of
palaces, bronze casting workshops, segregated graveyards for the
nobility and the general populace, as well as over 4,000 inscribed
tortoise shells and animal bones. These finds have served to offer
a new insight into the lives of the people of the Shang
Dynasty.
Recent excavations at Sanxingdui in Guanghan city, Sichuan
Province and Wubeiling in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province have cast a
new light on the cultural links between the Shang imperial court
which ruled the Central Plains (the middle and lower reaches of the
Yellow River) and contemporary states throughout southwest and
south China.
The 1929 discovery of a Sanxingdui culture dating back between
3,000 and 5,000 years has been ranked as one of China’s top ten
archaeological discoveries of the 20th century.
Since the 1980s, extensive archaeological work has been
revealing the secrets of the 12 square kilometer Sanxingdui site
with its ancient walled town. Graves and many cultural relics have
been found.
The Sanxingdui discoveries have been supplemented by later finds
at Baodun in Xinjin County, Mangcheng in Dujiangyan City, Gucheng
in Pixian County and Yujicheng in Wenjiang City, all in Sichuan
Province. They demonstrate that even before the Xia Dynasty, the
ancient Shu people of the Chengdu Plain had created a regional
civilization characterized by grand ritual buildings and high city
walls. The long-lived Shu civilization centered on the upper
reaches of the Yangtze River continued all through the time of the
three dynasties.
King Wen and King Wu of Zhou built their capital cities of
Fengyi and Gaojing in the 11th century BC. The two cities cover a
total area of 15 square kilometers and face each other across the
Fenghe River in Changan County, Shaanxi Province. History shows
they remained the political, economic and cultural centers of the
Western Zhou Dynasty (c.1100-771 BC) for nearly 300 years.
The Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social
Sciences has been involved in archaeological surveys and
excavations at Fengyi and Gaojing ever since 1951. This work has
yielded artifacts of inestimable value to detailed research into
the Western Zhou Dynasty, a time of profound social change in
Chinese history.
Other important discoveries of the Western Zhou Dynasty include:
a royal bronze casting workshop in Luoyang, Henan Province; a
cemetery holding the earthly remains of the aristocracy of the
State of Yan, a kingdom enfeoffed by the Western Zhou imperial
court based at Liulihe in Beijing; the tomb of Marquis Jinhou of
the State of Jin, similarly enfeoffed as a vassal kingdom, in
Beizhao village, Quwo County, Shanxi Province.
A large number of inscribed bronze-ware items, bamboo slips
(used for writing) and musical instruments such as serial bells and
chimes have been unearthed from graves of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty
(770-256 BC). The excavations have included important tombs like
those of Marquis Caihou, Zenghouyi and King Zhongshan. The finds
help to provide an overall perspective of Eastern Zhou society in
regard to its social economy, military organization and ceremonial
life.
During the 9th Five-year Plan (1996-2000) China launched a
“Periodization Project of the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties.” Based
on a combination of extensive archaeological excavations, thorough
textual research and advanced dating technologies the scientists
eventually derived a convincing chronological table of the once
thought, merely legendary Three Dynasties.
(China.org.cn, translated by Shao Da, April 11, 2003)