Pan Geng moves the capital

When Shang Tang established the Shang dynasty, the first capital was in Bo (pronounced bó, modern Shangqiu, Henan Province). In the next three hundred years, the capital was moved five times. This was due to the fact that there were frequent internal disputes for the throne and civil strife within the royal family, as well as frequent floods in the lower reaches of the Yellow River. Once the capital city was flooded and had to be moved.

After twenty kings from Shang Tang, the throne was passed to Pan Geng. Pan Geng was a capable monarch. He was determined to move to the capital once again to change the unstable social situation at that time.

However, most of the nobles were greedy for comfort and were not willing to move. Some of the powerful nobles also incited the commoners to oppose the move and made a lot of noise.

In the face of the strong opposition, Pan Geng did not waver in his determination to move the capital. He brought the nobles who opposed the move to the capital and persuaded them patiently: "I want you to move because I want to stabilize our country. Instead of understanding my painstaking efforts, you have become unnecessarily alarmed. It is impossible for you to change my mind."

As Pan Geng insisted on moving the capital, he defeated the opposition and finally took the commoners and slaves across the Yellow River and moved to Yin (the present-day village of Xiaotun in Anyang, Henan Province). There, he reorganized the politics of the Shang dynasty and revived the declining Shang dynasty, which did not move its capital for the next 200 years. This is why the Shang Dynasty was also called Yin Shang, or the Yin Dynasty.

Since then, after more than 3,000 years, the capital of the Shang dynasty has long since been reduced to ruins. In modern times, a large number of ancient relics were unearthed in the area of Xiaotun Village in Anyang, proving that it was once the site of the Shang capital, and it was called "Yin Ruins".

Among the relics excavated from the ruins were more than 100,000 pieces of turtle nails (turtle shells) and animal bones, all of which were inscribed with illegible characters. It was only after archaeologists studied them that the texts were clarified. It turns out that the ruling class of the Shang Dynasty was very superstitious about ghosts and gods. They used turtle nails and animal bones to divine whether it was auspicious or unlucky during rituals, hunting, and expeditions. After the divination, the situation and the results of the divination were engraved in writing on the turtle nails and animal bones. This kind of writing is very different from the present writing, and later it was called "oracle bone writing". The Chinese characters that we use today evolved from the oracle bone script.

Among the relics excavated at Yinxu, a large number of bronze vessels and weapons were found, many of which were elaborately made. There is a large tripod called Simuwu, which weighs 875 kilograms and is more than 130 centimeters high, with a magnificent pattern of engravings. Such a large bronze vessel indicates the high level of bronze smelting technology and artistry during the Yin and Shang dynasties. But one can also imagine how many slaves' blood and sweat permeated such a huge and exquisite tripod.

Archaeologists have also unearthed the tombs of the Shang slave owners at Yinxu. In the tomb of a Shang king in the village of Wuguan in Anyang, in addition to a large number of extravagant burial goods such as pearls and jade, many slaves were killed alive and buried. In the tomb passage next to the tomb, many headless corpses were piled up on one side and many heads were arranged on the other side. According to the writing on the oracle bone fragments, they sacrificed their ancestors, but also massacred slaves as offerings, most reaching more than 2,600. This is evidence of the cruel persecution of slaves by the slave masters.

From the oracle bones excavated at Yinxu, we have more conclusive evidence of the social conditions of the Yin Shang period. Therefore, the earliest written history of China begins with the Shang Dynasty.