The Overview of Zhengzhou Shang Dynasty City Ruins

Zhengzhou Shang Dynasty City Ruins is located in the downtown area of Zhengzhou City, Henan Province. Their distribution regions include Guancheng District, Jinshui District, and Erqi District, etc., among which, the Guancheng District covers the major distribution area. 

The city ruins was discovered and confirmed in 1955. It is known that an inner city and an outer city consist of a dual structure of the whole city. The inner city is approximately rectangular, covering an area of about 300 hectares, with a perimeter of 6,960 meters. The east wall and the south wall are about 1,700 meters long each, the west wall is about 1,870 meters long, and the north wall is about 1,690 meters long. The existing highest part of the city wall is about 9 meters. It is constructed by layered rammed earth, with notably wide slope protection on both sides. There are 11 breaches found on all sides of the city walls in total, which were possibly city gates. The northeastern part of the inner city, according to some scholars’ presumption, may be a palace city, which is composed of densely distributed and unequal-sized palaces, ancestral temples, water supply and drainage facilities, trenches for sacrifice with human skulls, the nobles’ tombs, etc. Around the palace area, there are also rammed earth walls and deep trenches. It is about 750 meters long from east to west and about 500 meters wide from north to south. The outer one is divided by an irregular circle, with an area of about 1300 hectares, extending from the southeast corner to the northwest. There are more than 40 meters wide moats outside the outer city. Between the inner city and the outer city, or on the periphery of Zhengzhou Shang Dynasty City Ruins, there are a large number of residential areas, copper casting workshops, bone objects making workshops, pottery workshops, copper cellar pits, water supply and drainage facilities, graveyards, sacrificial remains, etc. The layout of the city ruins embodies the most common city-building system of inner and outer cities in ancient China and also reflects the city-building concept of “building an inner city to protect the monarch and building an outer city to protect the people” recorded in the literature.

Zhengzhou Shang Dynasty City Ruins, also known as “Bo Capital”, is the first capital where Shangtang, the founder of the Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BC), established his reign, which dates back to approximately 3,600 years ago. According to the oracle bone inscriptions, the Yin Ruins (an archaeological site in Anyang City, Henan Province), the capital of the late Shang Dynasty enjoyed the reputation of “Dayishang” (meaning the “grand capital”). Zhengzhou Shang Dynasty City Ruins thus qualified to be called “the earliest Dayishang” as the capital of the early Shang Dynasty.

Zhengzhou Shang Dynasty City Ruins are the core area of the early bronze civilization in China. The grandeur of this ancient capital city of thousands of years is exhibited by a series of marvelous remains and relics, such as the large-scale city layout, high and multiple structures and city wall facilities, imposing palaces, and bronze wares representing royal power, characters carved on oracle bones for divination, and the sound of proto-porcelain.

In the evolution of the historical layout of Zhengzhou City, the urban construction of the subsequent dynasties has been based on the city wall of Zhengzhou Shang Dynasty City Ruins. The area where it is located has been the city center for 3,600 years since the Shang Dynasty. With continuous human activities and cultural lineage, it preserves abundant relics from various historical periods. Zhengzhou Shang Dynasty City Ruins are the first batch of key historical and cultural sites under national-level protection, which provides important evidence for Zhengzhou to become a national historical and cultural city and to be listed among eight ancient capitals of China. It also lays an important cultural foundation for Zhengzhou City to build a demonstration zone for the inheritance and innovation of Chinese history and civilization and to become a key metropolis of China.