While China's oracle-bone characters are world-wide famous, the place-Anyang of central China's Henan Province--where they were discovered has now also become well-known and enjoys a high reputation as one of the seven ancient capital cities in the country. Traveling in Henan, you may not forget to make a visit to Anyang. Here you may see the Yin-ruins, the oracle-bone characters which occupy an important position in China's ancient history, the city architecture and the bronze wares; you have also countless old stories to hear.

　　The Origin of the Yin-ruins

　　The Yinruins are situated in a village called Xiao Tun in the northwest of Anyang and its surrounding area, covering both banks of the Huan River including nearby over 20 villages. This place was in ancient time called ?North Meng? also known as ?Yin? The Yin area was the capital location for the late Shang Dynasty(1600BC~1100BC). It is a place with large-scale and world-famous relics of Yin-Shang Culture. Around the 14th century B.C., Pan Geng, the 20th King of Shang Dynasty moved the capital to ?Yin Area from Qufu of East China's Shangdong Province, a city also very famous in Chinese history. From that time on, the Kingdom was continuously ruled by 12 kings in 8 generations. The dynasty lasted 273 years. After it was overthrown by King Wu of Zhou Dynasty, local residents were moved away in succession. As a result, the Yin area was gradually deserted and became ruins in a vast land called yin ruins by later generations. Yin ruins had been buried underground more than 3000 years before the oracle-bone characters were discovered at the end of 19th century. Only by that time was Yin ruins able to see the light of day again and its ancient civilization able to be displayed in China.

　　Why are Yin Ruins so famous at home and abroad?

　　With a total area of 24 square kilometers, the Yin ruins are about 6 kilometers long and 5 kilometers wide. It is an open city on a large scale and rich in legacy. The city's general layout centers on Xiao Tun, a district of palaces and ancestral temples, stretch along the Huan River in a radioactive form. There are foundations for grand palaces and temples, huge tombs of kings and nobles built strictly according to their grades, over-all spreading sites for residential houses, closely scattering handicraft workshops and the rich cultural legacy represented by the oracle-bone characters, bronze wares and jade articles. All these have constituted the connotation of a unique Yin ruins culture displaying a grand scale of the capital and the loyal style of the Shang Dynasty.

　　Composed of city architecture, oracle-bone characters and bronze wares, the so-called Yin-Shang culture is renowned at home and abroad .

　　As is known to all, the ancient Chinese architecture is famous for its earth and wood structure. Early in Yin-Shang time, the ancestors living in Central China already used the yellow earth and the wood seen everywhere as their main building materials. The Yin capital is one of the most famous classical cities in the countries with ancient civilization. The Yin-time capital construction planning, the building materials used and the architecture style have exerted very important influence upon the birth of the science of Chinese architecture in later time.

　　While taking earth and wood as the main building materials, those wise working masters also added stone or copper pillars as a basis for wooden pillars, apart from a house foundation with thick and solidly rammed earth in prevention of the residential houses from getting wet and of the pillars from rain erosion. Besides, although a house with double eaves and a slopping roof looked simple and plain, it showed a Chinese architecture style different from that of ancient Greece and Rome. Situated in Xiao Tun and HuaYuan Zhuang (another village nearby) on the southern bank of Huan River, the palace-temple district of the famous Yin ruins is over 1056 meters between south and north, about 650 meters from east to west. It totals an area of 687,000 square meters and is the most important part of the Yin ruins. At present, more than 80 building-foundations with rammed earth have been found in this area. They are imposing and tremendously big in shape, arranged insgroupsaccording to a certain setup, showing a high level for city construction in China's ancient time. They occupy an important position in the history of the Chinese architecture.

　　Yet, nothing with the Yin ruins is better known than the oracle-bone characters. The discovery shocked the world.

　　The reason why the oracle-bone characters are able to exist until today originates from an ancient custom of divination. In ancient time, the Chinese made judgment of their fortune by means of observing the crack shapes resulted from burnt tortoise shells or animal bones (mainly cattle's shoulder blade).

　　Most of today's unearthed oracle-bone characters were those which the Yin people had consciously kept in the cellars of the palaces. Historical changes left them buried in the ruins. After their excavation they were called tortoise shells and ox bones. The inscriptions on them have been thus named oracle-bone characters.

　　The oracle-bone inscription is one of the four ancient languages most famous in the world. On the list there are also the pictographs of ancient Egypt, the cuneiform characters of Babylon and the ancient Indian characters. The four together have been regarded as ?gems of the treasure-house of mankind culture? More significant is the fact that the oracle-bone characters laid a foundation for today's Chinese characters which comesintosbeing after going through long-time changes. The oracle-bone characters are thus regarded as the originator of the Chinese language.A large quantity of the shells and bones has oracle characters on them. Yet there are also some which carry non-oracle characters but records of events. The contents of the oracle-bone characters can be dividedsintos21 items in 4 categories involving ancient time politics, military affairs, culture, social customs, astronomy and calendar etc., thus recognized by scholars as China's earliest encyclopedia?

　　During the ending years of Qing dynasty, peasants of Xiao Tun village in Anyang frequently dug out some old tortoise shells and animal bones when ploughing. Among the old bones, some had carried characters. But the peasants at that time did not know them. They used the bones as fertilizer or threw themsintoswells without water and later ground themsintospowder for medical purpose. Some of the shells and bones were sold to shops for Chinese medicine in bundles as Dragon bone? It was said that the shops usually refused to purchase the Dragon bones with characters. Therefore, the Xiao Tun farmers had to scrap the characters away before they sold them to the shops. And then the businessmen at that time sold the Dragon bones further to drugstores in Beijing. Among those sold to Beijing, there were still some left with oracle characters on them. In 1899, Wang Yirong, an expert on the study of inscriptions on ancient bronzes and stones tablets and also an official in Beijing, discovered the oracle-bone characters from the Dragon bones purchased. One piece of oracle-bone shocked the world. Since 1899, 150,000 pieces of oracle bones with about 4500 characters have been unearthed. Among them, nearly 2000 have been recognized.

　　The discovery of the oracle-bone characters has confirmed the argument that in Shang Dynasty science and technology already reached world advanced level at that time in many respects. This is now a pride of the Chinese nation. For examples: the Shang calendar was a Yin-Yang (moon and sun) combination which has been in use until today; the theories on calculation of sun eclipse and forecast of eclipses for the sun and the moon in turns; the record about decayed tooth was 700 to 1000 years earlier than record of the same kind in Egypt and ancient India; the record of the knowledge about plant moisture physiology was 1000 years earlier than that in ancient Greece, etc. The above-mentioned examples can all be found in the oracle-bone characters.

　　The excavation of large quantities of bronze ware has indicated that China is one of the civilized ancient countries in the world entering the bronze era at the earliest time. Today China's bronze is well-known at home and abroad. For this fact, the contribution of Si Mu Wu Ding (an ancient bronze cooking vessel with four legs) excavated from a king's tomb in the Yin ruins should not be neglected. Si Mu Wu Ding is 133 centimeters high, 875 kilograms in weight. It is seldom seen in the world history of ancient time bronze casting that the vessel is so perfectly manufactured and the whole thing is so heavy. For this reason, it is called by scholars the crown of the world bronze?

　　The Chinese first ladygeneral

　　While the magnificent An Yang Yin ruins tower aloft on the ground, countless widely- known historical stories are still recorded on the relics underground. Here we would like to tell you one of these stories. It is fu Hao Takes Command of the Army? (Fu means lady in Chinese)

　　The famous Fu Hao tomb is also situated in the palace-temple district. Fu Hao was a well-educated ladygeneral, being the first one recorded in China's written history. She was the wife of King Wu Ding in Shang Dynasty. The discovery of the tomb is one of the most important archaeological finds in the palace-temple district of Yin ruins since 1928. It is the only loyal family member tomb being in a good and complete condition since a scientific excavation of Yin ruins was launched. It is also the only Shang loyal-family tomb which can be linked with the oracle-bone characters and be judged when it was built and whom the dead was. With a large quantity of funerary objects, the tomb is worthwhile to see.

　　Fu Hao was not only a pretty lady, but also a master of martial arts. She was proficient in military strategy and tactics and could take command in a war. According to the records on the oracle-bones, Fu Hao helped her husband many times to devise strategies and defeated enemies all around. She also presided over memorial ceremonies. Her meritorious service helped her husband win a successful career. Therefore she was deeply loved by King Wu Ding.

　　Once, after King Wu Ding won in his expedition against the armies of Jing and Chu (other two kingdoms), an urgent message came, saying that the army of Qiang was invading from the west. Wu Ding regarded the Qiang as a tribe not worth mentioning. He sent General Zhi Mei to the front with an army of only several thousand soldiers. But Fu Hao paid much attention to this situation, being afraid that an army with so few soldiers and led by a general like Zhi Mei who had a good reputation but lacked real fighting experience would be defeated.shavingsapproved by the King, Fu Hao led her crack troops of 3000 soldiers and over 10,000 ordinary warriors in addition in a day-and-night urgent march against the enemy. As was expected, Zhi Mei had already been defeated and was commanding his troops in a withdrawal. Fu Hao stood awe-inspiringly on her war-vehicle, dressed in a suit of armour and with a bronze battle-axe in her hand, observing carefully the terrain of the battlefield. When she found that there was no high mountain and big river as a barrage, she decided to leave a small part of her troops to help Zhi Mei. She herself led the army to go back to the rear of the enemy troops. The enemy was attacked from both the front and the rear. The Qiang army suffered from countless wounded and deaths, most of those survived were taken prisoners by the Shang army. Since then, Wu Hao went on many expeditions, establishing merits in enlarging the land-area of Shang. Fu Hao died from over hard-work with regret. Insgroupsto memorize her great merits and express his deep love for her, King Wu Ding made an exception( because women had a very low position in the royal family at that time) in building a ?Royal family tomb nearby the palace district for Fu Hao, and she was buried with a lot of valuable articles as funeral objects.

　　In 1976, the archaeologists of Anyang Institute under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences excavated this well-kept ancient tomb. Fu Hao's tomb was a royal one with a clear knowledge fo tomb owner's identification and without any robbery. Over 1900 pieces of historical relics were unearthed; among which 134 pieces was weaponry, 440 pieces were bronze vessels, over 590 pieces were jade objects, over 560 pieces were bone objects, and in addition, there were stone wares, ivory products, potteries and over 6,000 pieces of shells. The objects unearthed from Fu Hao's tomb were extremely exquisite. It shows clearly that Fu Hao was a good general with tremendous merits. She was the first ladygeneral with the highest rank recorded in China's written history.

　　Since the discovery of the oracle-bone characters in 1899 and the scientific excavation of Yin ruins, a lot of sites of the capital's buildings and the rich cultural relics represented by the oracle-bone characters and bronze ware have displayed the brilliant civilization of China's late Shang dynasty. The discovery and excavation of Yin ruins has been ranked as the first one among the 100 important archaeological finds in 20th century in China?Courtesy of Anyang Yin Ruins Museum for all the file photos