The Zhou were an ancient tribe active in the area of present-day Shaanxi and Gansu in western China. According to the records, the end of the 12th century BC or the beginning of the 11th century BC, the Zhou tribe leader Gugong Danfather from the Duke of the capital moved to the Zhou Yuan, therefore, built in the Zhou Yuan of the citadel Qiyi became the birthplace of the Zhou people and the capital before the destruction of the Shang Dynasty, to the Western Zhou Dynasty here is still an important political center of the Zhou people, the end of the Zhou Dynasty due to the invasion of the Xirong into the ruins. 1976, archaeologists in the north of the two counties of Fufeng and Qishan in Shaanxi Province, excavations unearthed the Western Zhou Dynasty and culture, and the Zhou Dynasty was the first time in China. In 1976, archaeologists carried out excavations in the northern part of Fufeng and Qishan counties in Shaanxi Province and unearthed large palace complexes, tombs and workshop sites of the Western Zhou Dynasty. Zhouyuan is famous for the large number of bronzes unearthed. The history of bronze artifacts unearthed in Zhouyuan can be traced back to the Han Dynasty, and it is rumored that the famous Daimuer Gui, Yu Ding, and Maogong Ding all came from Qishan at the end of the Qing Dynasty. Since then, there have been successive discoveries. For example, in 1890, more than 120 pieces of copper wares were unearthed in Renjia Village of Fufeng, such as those of the Ke group and the Zhongyifu group; in 1933, more than 100 pieces of copper wares were found in Shangkang Village of Fufeng, such as those of the Huanhuangfu group and the Baishang group; in 1940, more than 100 pieces of copper wares were found in Renjia Village of the Liangqi group; and 39 pieces of copper wares were found in 1960 in Qijia Village of Fufeng; and 37 pieces of copper wares were unearthed in 1975 in Dongjiacun Village of Qishan, including the Qiuwei four wares, with inscriptions relating to land exchanges and the exchange of land with the Mao Gong Ding. In 1975, 37 copper wares were unearthed in Dongjia Village, Qishan, including the Qiuwei four wares, with inscriptions on land exchange and compensation, which were important materials for studying the land relations at that time. 103 copper wares were unearthed in Zhuangbai, Fufeng, in 1976, with 74 pieces of inscriptions, which were mainly copper wares of the Weishi family, represented by the Shi wall plate. According to the research, these copperware may be buried in the end of the Western Zhou Dynasty when the invading aristocrats of the Injun Rong fled the country. In addition, in a cellar in the west wing of the building site of the Feng Daoyi, more than 17,000 pieces of divining armor and bones were unearthed, of which more than 200 pieces of divining armor have inscriptions on them, with the largest piece of up to 30 characters, which provide important physical information for the study of the social history of the Western Zhou Dynasty.
Around the 11th century BC, King Wu of Zhou destroyed the Shang Dynasty and established the Zhou Dynasty, which is called the Western Zhou. At the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, King Wen made Feng and King Wu made Hao. Therefore, located in the Feng River on both sides of the Feng, Hao two capitals became the capital of the Western Zhou Dynasty Zhou people, the capital time of about 300 years, until the Zhou Ping Wang moved to the east after the abandonment. Through archaeological excavation, it has been proved that Fengjing Ruins in the area of Keshengzhuang, Ma Wang Village and Xinwang Village, the ruins of large building complexes have been found, and a complete set of underground drainage pipes have been found. Haojing site in Doumen Town, Garden Village, Pudu Village to Lushui Village, Meiwuling area of the high hill zone. The site of a large palace was found, and there were two groups of symmetrically distributed annexed buildings of comparable size in the north and south. Hundreds of Western Zhou tombs were also found. Another in Zhangjiapo found four burial pits, one of the more complete preservation of the interior of a driving four-horse combat with the Rong car and driving two-horse ride with light carriage each one, the Rong car driving horse all bronze for decoration, light carriage driving horse most of the filling with sea shell, craftsmanship, exquisite shape. The site was also found in many cellars, unearthed more than 100 pieces of equipment, its inscription recorded some of the historical facts of the Zhou Dynasty. The discovery here not only has a high artistic value, but also to explore the social and economic structure of the Western Zhou Dynasty as well as the production of life at that time has a high academic value.
In the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty, King Wu, while setting up his capital at Haojing, considered building Luoyi in the area of present-day downtown Luoyang in order to facilitate the control of the East. Luoyi, also known as Xinyi, Xindayi, Xinyiluo and Chengzhou in Western Zhou bronze inscriptions and Shangshu and other documents, was actually the companion capital of the Western Zhou royal family at that time. In the Book of Yi Zhou - Du Yi, King Wu said to Duke Dan of Zhou, "Dan, I am going to control the world's clear order, set the heavenly protection, and rely on the heavenly room. ...... From the Luo River Bend to the Yi River Bend, there is no solidity in the Yang, and there is the residence of Xia. This shows that King Wu already had a plan to build the capital of Luoyi. Unfortunately, King Wu died soon after he killed Zhou, followed by the Three Supervisors' Rebellion and the Duke of Zhou's Eastern Conquest. After the campaign, the Duke of Zhou started to build the eastern capital, Luoyi, in Luoyang. According to the Shangshu-Kangjun: "The Duke of Zhou first set up a new capital at Luoyi, the eastern capital." According to the Shangshu-Luo Guan, the Duke of Zhou summoned the Duke to come to Luoyang to meet with him before the construction of Luoyi, and chose Luoyi to be located in the area from the east of the Jianshui River to the banks of the Chanshui River: "I divined the river Shuo Lishui, I divined the east of the Jianshui River, and the west of the Chanshui River, but only Luoyi was eaten; and I divined the east of the Chanshui River, but also only Luoyi was eaten." During the reign of King Cheng, Luoyi was finally built. The Records of the Zhou Dynasty (周记-周本纪) recorded: "King Cheng was in Feng, and asked Duke Zao to resume the construction of Luoyi, as King Wu had intended. The Duke of Zhou resumed divining Shenshi, finished the construction, and resided in the Nine Cauldrons." The newly built Luoyi Cheng Zhou, "was a thousand and twenty cubits square, seventy miles in the breast, tied to the Luo water in the south, and due to the 郏山 in the north. It was thought to be the great compact of the world." ("Kapitsuka Zhou Shu - Zuo Luo Xie") After the completion of Luoyi, it became an important base for operating in the east and consolidating the power outside of Feng-ho.
Since the Han Dynasty, the traditional view has been that Luoyi, built by the Duke of Zhou, was divided into two citadels: Wangcheng and Chengzhou.With the discovery of the county seat of Han River Henan in the 1950s, the location of Wangcheng was determined to be on the north bank of the Luo River and the east bank of the Jianshui at the confluence of the Jian and Luo Rivers in the city of present-day Luoyang. The location of Cheng Zhou, on the other hand, according to the "Book of the Later Han Dynasty", was identified as the site of the old city of Hanwei, that is, in the territory of Yanshi and Mengjin counties east of the Baima Temple in the eastern suburbs of present-day Luoyang City. However, in recent decades, the archaeological discovery of a large number of data, so that some scholars of the Western Zhou Luoyi "Wangcheng", "into the Zhou" said the two cities raised doubts. This is mainly because, according to the literature found on the east bank of the Jianhe River King City site, only the Eastern Zhou King City rather than the Western Zhou city site. So some scholars put forward the Western Zhou Luoyi one city theory, and speculated that the city site may be on both sides of the Chanshui River. (Ye Wansong et al: "Examination of the City Site of Luoyi in the Western Zhou Dynasty", Huaxia Archaeology, No. 2, 1991.)
At present, although the site of the Western Zhou city of Luoyi is said to be undiscovered, on both sides of the Chanshui River, archaeology has achieved fruitful results, thus providing important clues for the search for the ancient city of Luoyi to understand the important political and economic center of the Zhou royal family during the Western Zhou period, and also the companion capital of Luoyi at that time.
One of the more important archaeological discoveries is the discovery of numerous Western Zhou tombs on both sides of the Chanshui River, with the Beiyao Western Zhou Cemetery on the west bank of the Chanshui River being particularly important. In the Beiyao Cemetery, 475 Western Zhou tombs were found and 348 of them were excavated, including large, medium and small-sized tombs of different grades, and individual large-sized tombs with north-south tomb passages. In the cemetery, there are also a large number of pits where horses were martyred, with the number of martyred horses ranging from a few to dozens. Most of the graves were excavated before the founding of the PRC, and a large number of the excavated bronzes were lost to foreign countries. It is possible that some important Western Zhou bronzes originally rumored to have come from Mapo in Luoyang may have come from this cemetery. This cemetery out of the bronze, recorded in LiuTiZhi "good zhai jijin record", rong geng "good zhai yi ware catalogue", "song zhai jijin sequel", LuoZhenYu "ching song hall collection of ancient remains" chenmengjia "western week bronze broken", "the United States imperialism looting our YinZhou bronze collection of books and other books and writings. The Luoyang Museum still has a heavy artifact "Wang Si Fang Yi" which was stolen in 1947. Nevertheless, tens of thousands of burial objects were unearthed in the cemetery. Most of the burial objects were bronze ceremonial vessels, including food vessels such as tripods, gui, 甗, and li鬲; wine vessels such as square Yi, jars, jia, dendrobiums, divorces, wine containers, and zuns; and water vessels such as jugs, plates, and washbasins. At the same time, many new and rare shapes were unearthed, such as square box-shaped vessels, goblets with streams, double-sided pedestals, square pedestal gui with animal faces, and human-shaped carts, etc. Many of the bronze vessels unearthed at the Beiyao kiln were of the same shape as those at the Beiyao kiln. Many of the bronze vessels unearthed in the North Kiln are also cast with inscriptions, such as Wang Haumea Gui, Taibao ten billions of goblets, Kang Bo pot cover, Bai Maofu Gui, Feng Bo sword, Shi only wine containers cover, Shuzuo Zun, Shao Bo Hu Jie and so on, and all the characters involved in these inscriptions are the high-ranking nobility of the Western Zhou royal family, which means that the cemetery is a cemetery of the Western Zhou aristocracy. (Luoyang City Cultural Relics Team: Western Zhou Tomb of Luoyang Beiyao, Cultural Relics Publishing House, 1999) From the writings as well as the bronzes excavated in the archaeological excavation, the Luoyang area is one of the areas where more Western Zhou bronzes have been unearthed, and most of them are bronze ceremonial vessels, which also reflects the fact that Luoyi in the Chengzhou Dynasty and Haojing in the Zongzhou Dynasty, as two centers of gravity in the Western Zhou royal family, had the same important status. In addition, as many as 350 pieces of primitive celadon were unearthed in the cemetery, among which the celadon earthenware jar unearthed in Tomb 202 can be regarded as the finest piece of primitive celadon discovered in China. (Figure - celadon four series of earthenware) Beiyao Western Zhou tombs unearthed more than 200 pieces of jade, rich in variety, including jang, bik, juan, kuai on behalf of the ritual jade occupies a certain proportion, reflecting the ritual jade in the Western Zhou social life in an important position.
Since the 1950s, archaeologists have discovered more than a hundred Western Zhou tombs in some places such as Pendulum Junction, Shimoyao Village, East Dasi, Baima Temple, and Luoyang Dongguan, Donghuatan, and Tawan, east of the Chanshui River. The most prominent feature of these tombs is that most of them are equipped with waist pits, some of them have a curved tomb passage at one end of the rectangular barrow cairn, and most of the burials include goblet, jue, goblet and other copper or pottery wine vessels, and their burial customs are quite characteristic of the tombs of the Yin people, and some of the buried copper vessels also have the inscriptions with the crest of the Yin tribe, which is regarded as the burials of the remnants of the Yin people. In connection with the "Yi Zhou Shu - Zuo Luo", which states that the Duke of Zhou "captured Yin Xianmin and moved them to Jiubi", Kong Chao notes: "Xianmin was also a member of the Shi Dafu. Jiubi was the place where the Zhou Dynasty was established." According to this record, a large number of Yin citizens did move to Chengzhou at the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty. These tombs should be the tombs of them and their descendants.
Since 1973, north of the old city of Luoyang, Beiyao Village, west of the Chanshui River on both sides of the Chanshui River found a large-scale copper casting workshop site, indicating that the royal family into the Zhou high level of handicraft development. The site covers an area of nearly 200,000 square meters, and the accumulation of Western Zhou cultural layers within the scope of the site is generally in the range of 1.30--2.00 meters, and the important relics found include house foundations, kilns, ash pits and more than a hundred Yin relics' tombs. A large number of pottery models and fragments of molten copper furnace walls were unearthed. The majority of the ceramic models are external models, with bronze ceremonial vessels such as tripods, gui, zun, goblets, wine containers, earthenware jars, knights, goblets, and a small number of carriages and weapons. There are also a small number of inner vanes and mother vanes. Some of the inner vanes of the ceremonial wares also have inscriptions or fine engravings of taotie, cloud and thunder pattern, scroll pattern, kui dragon pattern, phoenix and bird pattern, cicada pattern, four-leaf pattern, breast nail pattern, etc. The structural composition of the broken pottery vanes is analyzed from the analysis of the structural composition of the broken pottery vanes. From the analysis of the structural composition of the broken pottery models, the process of pottery making at that time was quite complicated. Research shows that this is an official copper casting handicraft workshop under the control of the Western Zhou royal family. Its large scale and rich varieties are second to none among the bronze workshop sites found in the Western Zhou Dynasty. (Luoyang Museum: "Luoyang Beiyao Village Western Zhou Ruins 1974 Annual Excavation Brief", Cultural Relics, 1981, No. 7. (Luoyang City Cultural Relics Team: "1975-1979 Excavations at the Western Zhou Copper-Casting Site of Beiyao, Luoyang", Archaeology, No. 5, 1983; "The Western Zhou Copper-Casting Site of Beiyao, Luoyang", Yearbook of Chinese Archaeology (1990), Cultural Relics Publishing House, 1991.)
As the capital of the state alongside the Zongzhou, Luoyi was politically, economically and militarily important during the Western Zhou period. Politically, it was the "center of the world and set up to manage the four directions", that is, He Zun inscription that "house Zi China, since the Zi mow people". In the military is a monitor Yin stubborn people, control of the East and the South of the military town; in the economy to Cheng Zhou as the center, easy to the four sides of the tribute levy, also known as the "four sides of the tribute to the Road Lijun". King Cheng's "famous beast tripod" inscription cloud: "Yin order Shi Beast Li Gong in Cheng Zhou. In the tenth and second month of the year, the beast offered its work to Yin. The beast of history offered its work to Yin." Ligong is the establishment of various handicrafts, offering work is to present a variety of handicraft products, reflecting the developed handicrafts of the royal family of Chengzhou. We believe that with the further development of archaeological work, more information about the Chengzhou Luoyi will be obtained, in order to continuously enrich and deepen the understanding of the culture of this capital city.
During the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, King Ping moved the capital to Luoyi, and the area of present-day Luoyang became the real seat of the royal family. Documentation, from King Ping moved east to Luoyang, to King Jing, 12 generations, King Jing Zhou had moved the capital in the Cheng Zhou, to the King of Zhou Blushing and moved back to Wangcheng, nearly 300 years are to Wangcheng as the capital. It has been proved that the area of Wangcheng Park east of Jianhe River in Luoyang City was the location of Wangcheng in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. After nearly half a century of research and exploration, the connotation and layout of the Eastern Zhou King City has been a basic understanding. The Eastern Zhou King City is nearly square in plan, with a length of about 3,700 meters from north to south and a width of about 2,890 meters from east to west. In addition to the southeastern part of the low-lying terrain due to the remains of the city wall was not found, the rest of the basically well-preserved, outside the city has a protective trench. West city wall from the northeast of the east dry ditch mound to the south, to the east dry ditch near the village, along the east bank of the jianhe river in wangcheng park across the jianhe river to the west, in the village of seven lihe folded to the south, the southern section of the wall slightly to the outer arc, to xinglongzhai. South city wall from the west corner of Xinglongzhai east across the Jian River by the north of Qujiatun Village. North city wall from the village of Donggangou north of the mound along the dry canal eastbound, to 200 meters north of the western wall of the city of Tang. During the Western Han Dynasty, there was a Henan County City built within the Zhou Wangcheng, but the extent of the city site has been reduced.
In the Eastern Zhou Wangcheng, the most important archaeological discovery is the discovery of two groups of large area of rammed earth building base sites in the southwest of the city. Around the base of the site unearthed a large number of the Eastern Zhou period of the tube tile, plate tile and tile, etc., according to the "Guoyu - Zhou" "Ceres, Luo bucket, will destroy the king's palace," the record, it is presumed that this is likely to be the palace of the king's city area. (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Institute of Archaeology, ed: Archaeological Discoveries and Research in New China, 271 pages, Cultural Relics Publishing House, 1984.) In the southern part of the city site, a large cluster of granaries was also discovered. Seventy-four granaries have been explored, neatly arranged in an area 400 meters long from north to south and 300 meters wide from east to west. From the grain silos after the abandonment of dumping and a variety of materials, products, semi-finished products and copper, lead, slag, charcoal and other relics analyzed, the vicinity of the grain silos may have been a variety of government-run handicrafts workshop concentration area. The northern part of the city site, especially in Xiaotun village north, east dry ditch northeast, found a kiln, the production of all kinds of household goods, building materials and burial with Ming ware, etc., it can be known that this is another craft workshop area in the city, the production of products specifically for the consumption of the city residents.
To date, thousands of Eastern Zhou tombs, car and horse pits, etc. have been discovered and excavated in and around the eastern and northeastern parts of the Wangcheng. 260 Eastern Zhou tombs were excavated in the fall of 1954 to the spring of 1955 on Zhongzhou Road in Luoyang. They serve as a yardstick for breaking the generation of Eastern Zhou tombs in the central region. These 260 tombs, according to the form and combination of burial pottery, can be divided into seven phases, from the early Spring and Autumn period to the late Warring States period, throughout the Eastern Zhou period. Among them, the tombs with bronze ritual vessels and carriage vessels are mainly concentrated in the Spring and Autumn period, reflecting the historical fact that the royal family of the Eastern Zhou declined to the extreme and existed in name only during the Warring States period. It is worth noting that the northeastern part of the city site is an important burial area within the royal city. Among the tombs found, not only the proportion of buried bronze ritual vessels and bronze swords is relatively large, but also there are many large tombs of the Warring States period with tomb passages. For example, in 1957, four adjoining A-shaped tombs were found in the northeast of Xiaotun in the Wangcheng City, in which Tomb No. 1, though seriously disturbed, still has traces of color painting on the two walls of the tomb passage and the four walls of the tomb room, which are patterns composed of four colors, namely, red, black, yellow, and white; and among the unearthed burials, there is a piece of white jade kui with the word "Son of Heaven" in ink, which shows the noble status of the tomb owner. In 1974 in Luoyang Xigong I Kaixuan Road north side of the Qing two years of a tomb of the Warring States, the tomb plane was A-shaped, also was seriously disturbed, the remnants of the discovery of 359 pieces of relics, of which "Fan Yang of gold" sword for rare treasures. Recently, archaeologists have discovered 279 Eastern Zhou tombs and 18 burial pits for horses and carriages at the construction site of the Heluo Cultural Square in the center of Luoyang City, which is within the eastern wall of the Eastern Zhou King City, adjacent to the eastern wall. More breathtaking is the discovery of 6 horses driven by the "Son of Heaven ride", the study of the history of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty and explore the Eastern Zhou royal cemetery has an extremely important role.
In addition to the important discoveries in the royal city, a large number of Eastern Zhou tombs have been found to the east and west of the Eastern Zhou royal city. In particular, in the village of Jin, located in the northeast corner of the Hanwei Imperial City 10 kilometers east of Luoyang City, found that there are nine large Eastern Zhou tombs, of which tomb Ⅳ unearthed a stone kuai placed in the copper plate, the mouth on the edge of the word "king". These tombs have been stolen as early as the Republic of China years, had unearthed a large number of bronze, lacquer wood, jade, gold and silver. The book "Luoyang Jincun Ancient Tomb Gathering" includes 328 pieces of cultural relics unearthed in Jincun, of which 85 pieces of wrong gold and silverware, whether from the production of modeling, or craftsmanship level, can be called a masterpiece, unfortunately, these objects are lost abroad. But from the known information speculation, here can be very very is the period of the Warring States period of the Eastern Zhou royal family cemetery.
Thousands of Eastern Zhou tombs found inside and outside the city, as well as a number of pits, unearthed a large number of exquisite cultural relics, from one side to reflect the Eastern Zhou period of Luoyang as a political, economic and cultural center. In addition to the above, in 1981, in Xigong District, Bajiyi Warring States Tomb unearthed 15 pieces of tripod, beans, pots and other bronze ceremonial objects, musical instruments, copper Yongzhong a set of 16 pieces of lead kneeling figurines, stone chime 6 pieces of which 4 pieces of copper pots neck and abdomen are inlaid with red copper in the hunting pattern; in 1982 in the Zhongzhou Road, Warring States burial pits unearthed 147 pieces of bronze objects, another set of 23 pieces of stone chime and some of the exquisite There are also a set of 23 stone chimes and some exquisite jade and stone utensils. These unearthed cultural relics can show the style and grandeur of the capital of the Son of Heaven. In the unearthed bronze rituals, more large-scale ware, wrong gold and silver ware rich and beautiful, patterned and elaborate, showing a high level of casting technology; in the unearthed jade, common jade jade, ring, Juan, with hooks, pieces of jewelry, jade and stick, columns, beads, etc., reflecting the Eastern Zhou Dynasty rituals of jade to the development of jade characteristics of the times; unearthed ceramics, more than beautifully painted ceramics, the same is a rare art treasures.
The successive archaeological discoveries and the unearthed of many exquisite cultural relics show us the prosperity and colorfulness of the royal capital and culture in the two-week period, which is an important embodiment of the development of China's early civilization. From here, we can not only know one of the two weeks of civilization, but also find out the trajectory of the development of early Chinese civilization.