Yin Xu

The paramount royal palace and ceremonial precinct of the late Shang dynasty along the Huan River.

The landmark 1936 discovery vault yielding over 17,000 inscribed oracle bone fragments, representing China's earliest national archive.

The primary late Shang royal bronze workshop site demonstrating the world's most advanced piece-mold casting technology.

In-situ exhibition of six preserved late Shang horse-drawn wooden chariots with skeletal remains of horses and drivers.

The only undisturbed royal tomb of the Shang dynasty, belonging to Queen and military general Fu Hao, yielding nearly 2,000 treasures.

The vast Xibeigang royal necropolis where late Shang kings were buried in multi-ramped tombs, the source of the monumental Houmuwu Ding.

The monumental national museum on the Huan River showcasing nearly a century of Shang archaeological discoveries.

Part of Yin Xu's history: Pan Geng Moves Capital to Yin. Shang king, brother of Yang Jia, whose move of the capital across the Yellow River is recorded in the Pan Geng chapters of the Book of Documents

Part of Yin Xu's history: Wu Ding's Golden Age. Minister of the Shang king Wu Ding who, according to the Shiji, was a convict building walls at Fuxian until the king found him after seeing him in a dream

Part of Yin Xu's history: Wu Ding's Golden Age; Part of Yin Xu's history: Lady Fu Hao's Campaigns; Part of Yin Xu's history: Apex of Shang Bronze Metallurgy. Consort of the Shang king Wu Ding who, according to oracle-bone records, led armies against the Tufang and Qiang and presided over sacrifices, and whose intact tomb was opened at Anyang in 1976

Part of Yin Xu's history: Wu Ding's Golden Age; Part of Yin Xu's history: Lady Fu Hao's Campaigns; Part of Yin Xu's history: Apex of Shang Bronze Metallurgy. Shang king who, according to the Shiji, revived the dynasty with Fu Yue as his minister; the largest body of oracle-bone inscriptions dates from his reign

Part of Yin Xu's history: Battle of Muye. Zhou king, son of King Wen, who led the allied lords to victory over the last Shang king at Muye and founded the Western Zhou with its capital at Hao

Part of Yin Xu's history: Battle of Muye. Early Zhou counsellor who, according to the Records of the Grand Historian, helped Kings Wen and Wu overthrow the Shang and became the first ruler of Qi

Part of Yin Xu's history: Battle of Muye. Last king of Shang, known as Zhou, whom the Shiji depicts as gifted but tyrannical and who burned himself on the Deer Terrace after defeat at Muye

Part of Yin Xu's history: Excavating Yinxu. Oracle-bone scholar and archaeologist who led the first trial excavation at Yinxu in 1928, devised a ten-criterion scheme for dating oracle bones and wrote Yin lipu.

Part of Yin Xu's history: Excavating Yinxu. Archaeologist and anthropologist who excavated Xiyin village in Shanxi in 1926 and from 1929 headed the archaeology section of the Institute of History and Philology, directing the Yinxu excavations until 1937.

Part of Yin Xu's history: Excavating Yinxu. Archaeologist who read the stratified sequence of Yangshao, Longshan and Shang remains at Hougang in Anyang and directed the excavation of the great Shang tombs at Xibeigang, Houjiazhuang.

Part of Yin Xu's history: Excavating Yinxu. Archaeologist who joined the Yinxu excavations at Anyang in 1931 and spent decades preparing the Xiaotun series of excavation reports.

Pan Geng Moves Capital to Yin

Pan Geng overcame noble resistance and moved the Shang capital to Yin, ending repeated relocations and stabilizing late Shang rule.

Apex of Shang Bronze Metallurgy

The late-Shang Houmuwu Ding is a monumental bronze ritual vessel made for royal sacrifice, demonstrating the scale and courtly function of Shang bronze production.

Around 1300 BCE, Pan Geng moved the Shang capital to Yin, establishing the late Shang political, economic, and ritual center for roughly 255 years.

Wu Ding's Golden Age

Wu Ding promoted Fu Yue and led campaigns beyond Shang's borders, bringing Shang power and bronze culture to their zenith.

During Wu Ding's revival, Queen Fu Hao led military campaigns and served as a ritual specialist; her unlooted tomb preserves an exceptional late-Shang royal assemblage.

The Miaopu North workshops specialized in ritual bronzes, revealing the scale, organization, and techniques of craft production in the late Shang capital.

Lady Fu Hao's Campaigns

Fu Hao led Shang armies against the Qiang and other rivals, leaving early evidence of a woman commanding major campaigns.

Fu Hao was queen, commander, and ritual specialist; her owl zun embodies her place in late-Shang political and ceremonial life.

Cast in large ceramic moulds, the 832.84-kilogram Houmuwu Ding concentrates the ritual purpose, technical coordination, and resources of the late-Shang court.

Battle of Muye

King Wu's coalition defeated Shang at Muye as troops turned against their commanders, ending Shang and founding Western Zhou.

Excavating Yinxu

From 1928 the Institute of History and Philology of Academia Sinica carried out fifteen scientific excavation seasons at Yinxu in Anyang, recovering oracle bones and Shang remains and opening modern Chinese field archaeology.

Archaeological excavation launched in 1928 at Xiaotun, marking the birth of modern Chinese field archaeology.

From autumn 1934 to the end of 1935 Liang Siyong led the tenth to twelfth Yinxu seasons, opening the Shang royal tombs at Xibeigang near Houjiazhuang.

On 12 June 1936 the thirteenth Yinxu season found pit YH127 at Xiaotun, which yielded 17,096 inscribed oracle-bone pieces.