Chapter 3 Section 2 Place names engraved on tortoise shells and animal bones

Zhuolu and Banquan are two place names handed down by the ancestors and later recorded. The earliest place names that were actually recorded at that time were the Yin and Shang Dynasties in the slave society.At that time, there was no paper or cloth, and inscriptions were carved on tortoise shells or animal bones.These inscribed tortoise shells and animal bones are actually the archives of the royal family at that time, which of course include a lot of place names. Since the discovery of oracle bones in the Xiaotun area of ​​today's Anyang (namely Yin Ruins) at the end of the Qing Dynasty, people have successively excavated them in other places in Henan, Shaanxi, Shandong, Hebei and other places.It is estimated that 100,000 pieces have been found in Anyang and its vicinity alone, and some of them have been exiled overseas.According to the "Oracle Bone Inscriptions" published in 1965, the number of known and unknown characters reached 4672.According to Chen Mengjia's estimate, "there are more than 500 place names recorded in the inscriptions" ("Summary of Inscriptions on Yin Ruins").Among them, there are the place names of the capital of the Shang Dynasty and many place names of Fangguo.

Zhou was originally a vassal state of Yin. Because of the invasion of Beidi, it moved south from Binxian County, Shaanxi Province to the Zhouyuan area between Qishan and Fufeng in Shaanxi Province.In recent years, a large number of oracle bones and bronze wares have also been discovered here. Later, the Zhou Dynasty moved its capital to Fenghehao successively, and finally destroyed the Yin and Shang Dynasties and established the Zhou Dynasty. The oracle bones and bronzes unearthed in Zhouyuan have made great progress compared with the Yin and Shang Dynasties.