Chapter 3 Chapter 3 Shang Royal Tombs

From Shang Tang's founding of the country to Pangeng, there were 10 generations and 19 kings in total. There is no record of the tombs of these emperors, and they have not been found so far.According to "Historical Records": "From Pan Geng's move of the capital to Yin to the destruction of Zhou, two hundred and seventy-three years (approximately from the end of the 14th century BC to the 11th century BC), the capital has not been moved again", during which there were 8 generations and 12 kings. .The land of Yin is called Yin Ruins by later generations, and it is located on both sides of the Huan River in the northwest suburb of Anyang City, Henan Province.The south bank is the palace area, residential area and handicraft area, and the north bank is the royal tomb area, with a total area of ​​about 24 square kilometers. In 1961, the State Council announced it as a national key cultural relics protection unit.

The Wangling District is located in Xixigang, north of Wuguan Village and Houjiazhuang (Figure 1).The terrain here is slightly higher, facing the Xiaotun palace area across the river. The area is about 450 meters long from east to west and about 250 meters wide from north to south.So far, 13 large tombs have been discovered, which are divided into east and west areas, five in the east area and eight in the west area. A total of 12 tombs were excavated from 1934 to 1935 and after 1950, one of which was an empty tomb that was not used after construction.Due to insufficient literature, the respective tomb owners cannot be verified.In these large tombs, there are only a few tomb passages that break each other, but there are absolutely no tomb chambers that break each other.It can be seen that these tombs were arranged in a certain layout in advance.In the mausoleum area, a small number of medium-sized tombs and a large number of small-sized tombs were found, which should belong to the accompanying tombs and sacrificial pits of the large tomb.There are also a large number of sacrificial burial pits in the east area.

These tombs are all vertical pit tombs in earth pits, with tomb passages, and can be divided into three types according to the plane shape: sub-shaped, medium-shaped and A-shaped.Eight sub-shaped tombs were found, and each tomb has a tomb passage on each side. The south tomb passage is the longest, and the plane of the tomb is sub-shaped or square.There is a tomb passage in the north and south of the Chinese-shaped tomb, and the plane of the tomb is rectangular. A total of three tombs were found.Only one A-shaped tomb has been found, and there is a tomb passage in the south. The plane of the tomb is rectangular. It is said that Simu Wuding came out of this tomb.There are two types of tomb passages: slope-shaped and stepped-shaped, with a length of 11-60 meters.Most of the tomb chambers and tomb passages are 400-800 square meters in area, and the depth is more than 10 meters.Among them, the largest one is M1217 (Tomb No. 1217). There is a tomb passage on each side, and the plane of the tomb is sub-shaped.

The coffin and burial utensils are placed in the tomb.The plane of the coffin chamber is square or sub-shaped. The coffin chamber of M1001 is sub-shaped in plane and about three meters high.The bottom is laid with wooden boards, and the four walls are overlapped with wooden boards. The wooden boards are about 0.4 meters wide, 2.6-3.9 meters long, and up to six meters long. There are patterns carved on the outside.The outer and outer chambers of the large tomb in Wuguan Village are rectangular in plane, and the four walls are built with nine layers of logs overlapping to form a "well" shape. The bottom and the top are also covered with logs. , coffin inside the outer coffin.

There are no earthen mounds on the ground of the Mausoleum of the Shang King. The owner of the tomb of Fu Hao excavated in 1976 was Wu Ding's spouse.There is a house foundation above the entrance of the tomb, the plane is rectangular, the size is close to the entrance of the tomb, and there are relatively regular column holes arranged on the surface.It is inferred that it should be a hall or sleeping hall built to worship the owner of the tomb at that time, and it is the earliest similar building discovered so far. The Shang mausoleum has been robbed and excavated many times, and almost all the funerary artifacts have been stolen. Only a small number of artifacts or fragments remain in the tomb passage and the sacrificial pit.Many of them have been sold overseas.Funeral objects include bronze ritual vessels, weapons, tools, chariots and horses, jade, stone, bone, horn, ivory, white pottery and other living utensils and various decorations.There are many kinds and exquisite workmanship, including almost all the valuables enjoyed by the deceased during his lifetime.Many of them are cultural treasures of our country.For example, the Lufang Ding and Niufang Ding unearthed in M1104 are 60.9 and 73.3 centimeters high and weigh 60.4 and 110.4 kilograms respectively, which can be called the royal family's heavy equipment.Simuwu Ding is the heaviest Shang Dynasty bronze vessel ever discovered, weighing about 700 kilograms.The tomb of Fuhao was not stolen, and more than 460 bronze wares, nearly 750 jade wares, and more than 560 bone and horn wares were unearthed for burial.It is conceivable that the royal tomb, which is much taller than Fu Hao's tomb, should have more and more fine burial objects.

In the late Shang Dynasty, the phenomenon of using human sacrifice and human sacrifice was quite common.Human sacrifice is the sacrifice of ancestors and gods of mountains and rivers after killing people as livestock.Those killed were prisoners of war and slaves.Human sacrifice refers to the person who was buried for the royal family and nobles from the dead, including accompanying officials, concubines, bodyguards, cronies and servants.In the Shang Dynasty, in addition to the use of human sacrifices in building foundations and some sacrificial ceremonies, the number of human sacrifices and human sacrifices used in royal tombs was not only large, but also the way of disposal was the most cruel.These human sacrifices were buried at the bottom of the tomb, the rammed earth platform (two-story platform) outside the coffin, and the tomb passage and filling soil. A total of 23 people were martyred at the bottom of the M1001 tomb and around the coffin chamber. In addition, there are 61 headless bodies in the east and south tomb passages and the east ear chamber, all of which are arranged in groups. There are also 73 human skulls in the four tomb passages, which are also arranged in groups.These headless bodies and human skulls are believed to be human sacrifices killed during the funeral for the tomb owner.There are 31 burial pits on the east side of the tomb, of which 68 people were buried in 22 pits.In the largest burial pit, there are coffins and burial utensils, and there are also martyrs on the platform on the second floor, which shows the strict hierarchy at that time.A total of more than 160 people were killed and sacrificed in M1001.

The public sacrificial place for the Yin royal family to worship their ancestors is located in the east of Wangling District, covering an area of ​​tens of thousands of square meters, and more than 1,400 sacrificial pits have been discovered.The pits are arranged in an orderly manner and can be divided into several groups. Each group ranges from one pit to dozens of pits.Most of the pits are north-south, and a few are east-west. Not only adults, men and women, but also children are buried in the pits.Most of the dead were beheaded, and some were thrown into pits after limbs, waists or dismemberment.A small number of women and children were tied up and seemed to be buried alive.Among them, the total number of human sacrifices in more than 200 sacrificial pits excavated in 1976 reached 1,330. It can be imagined how brutal and cruel the slave owner nobles were at that time.

Among the tombs of the monarchs of the Fang Kingdom in the Shang Dynasty, Tomb No. 1 in Subutun Cemetery, Qingzhou City, Shandong Province has been discovered. The Subutun cemetery is on the Lingfu in the east of the village, about five meters above the nearby ground, and 10 tombs of the Shang Dynasty have been excavated.The shape of the tombs is similar to that of the royal tombs of the Yin Ruins. They are rectangular vertical holes, and some have tomb passages.There are three kinds of tomb passages: one, two and four.Among them, tomb No. 1 is a large tomb in the shape of a sub-shaped plane with four tomb passages.The tomb entrance is 15 meters long from north to south, 10.7 meters wide from east to west, and 8.25 meters deep.The south tomb passage is slope-shaped, 26.1 meters long and about three meters wide, and the other three tomb passages are stepped.The walls of the tomb are smooth and flat, a sub-shaped wooden coffin is placed in the middle, and there is a waist pit and a foundation pit at the bottom of the tomb.The wooden coffin is made of planks about 13 centimeters thick, 4.55 meters long and 2 meters high.A layer of charcoal is spread under the coffin, 415 cm thick.There were 48 human sacrifices in the tomb.One person was buried in the waist pit and the foundation pit respectively.There are seven martyrs on the east and west floors, each with a wooden coffin, and their identities during their lifetime should be maids, concubines, guards and the like.There were 39 sacrifices in the tomb passage, which were stacked in three layers, of which 14 were full bodies and 25 heads, all of which were children.They were sacrificed after being killed, and their status seems to be the children of captives or slaves.The tomb was stolen, but there are still many pieces of copper, pottery, stone and jade.Among them, there are two large copper axes decorated with hollowed-out human-face patterns, and one has the inscription of the "Yachou" clan.

The shape, scale and number of victims of this tomb are similar to those of the Yin Dynasty royal tombs in Xibeigang, Anyang.The age of the tomb roughly corresponds to the late Yin Ruins period.According to "Zuo Zhuan · Zhao Gong Twenty Years" and "Han Shu · Geographical Records", the Bogu family lived in this area at the end of the Shang Dynasty and the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty.Historically, a batch of bronzes with the inscription "Yachou" were unearthed here, and it is speculated that there were more than one tomb of the Bogu family.