Zhou moved the capital from Liangshan to Qixia (now Sichuan).

Is the site of Zhougong Temple, 30 kilometers away from Joo Won?, the place where scholars have been looking for Zhou Wang's tomb for many years?

In a long-standing legend, there was a woman named Jiang who was pregnant because she set foot on God's footsteps in the wild. After the baby was born, Jiang thought it was unlucky and wanted to abandon him. The child was abandoned in the alley first, and the passing cattle and sheep did not step on him; Abandoned in the Woods, but picked up by people who cut down trees; Abandoned on the ice for the third time, he saw a flock of big birds spread their wings to cover him. Jiang was finally moved and raised the child. This child is Hou Ji, the ancestor of Zhou people.

According to documents, Hou Ji lived in Tai for the first time, and later he stayed in Gong, moved to other places, and moved to Qi when he was old. Describing this process, The Book of Songs said, "Old palace husband, come to Korea to lead the horse and lead the west to Shui Bo. As for embarrassment. " In the Book of Songs, this piece of Qixia is described as a fertile land, where Zhou people demarcated fields, built palaces, determined official positions and established the capital. After living for nearly a hundred years, I gradually accumulated the power of "stopping business".

For thousands of years, later generations have been arguing about the location of Tai and Gui, but there is little controversy about Qixia, the capital of the early Zhou Dynasty. In the literature, "Qixia" has always been regarded as Joo Won?, where Qishan County and Fufeng County of Shaanxi Province meet in the north. However, with the excavation of Zhougong Temple site cemetery 30 kilometers away from Joo Won? in June+10/mid-October, 5438, this traditional concept is facing more and more challenges-that is, "Qixia" may be outside Joo Won? (in a narrow sense).

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As early as the 1940s, archaeologists in China began to look for the capital of the Western Zhou Dynasty. The archaeologist Shi was the first person to visit the birthplace of Zhou people mentioned in the literature. At that time, he also inspected the capital cities "Jing" and "Haojing" established by Zhou people after "Qixia".

In fact, Joo Won?, as the settlement of Zhou people before the demise of Shang Dynasty, is not only documented, but also evidenced by a large number of Western Zhou bronzes unearthed here since the Qing Dynasty.

Famous bronze statues such as Mao, Mao, Mao, Mao, Pan were unearthed here. Therefore, when archaeologists began a scientific and systematic archaeological investigation of the capital of Zhou Dynasty in 1950s, their eyes first focused on this place.

However, Joo Won? seems to have failed to meet everyone's expectations. After nearly half a century of archaeological excavation, archaeologists have discovered a large number of cultural remains of Zhou people here. There are endless bronze hoards, rich Zhou Oracle Bone Inscriptions, a large number of Zhou tombs and large-scale architectural sites. Among them, 1976 has the most abundant harvest.

At that time, archaeologists not only discovered two large architectural sites in Feng Chu and Chen Zhao during the Western Zhou Dynasty, but also unearthed a large number of Oracle bones. By the end of the year, there were 103 bronzes unearthed in No.1 cellar of Zhuangbai Village in Joo Won? area, which is the most complete bronzes unearthed in Joo Won? area in the past hundred years. Among them, there are 284 inscriptions on the iron wall, which praise the great achievements of Wen, Wu, Cheng, Kang, Zhao and Mu in detail and provide the most direct explanation for the lineage recorded in the literature.

All these findings seem to remind people of a result-Joo Won? was the place where the capital of the early Zhou Dynasty was "split".

However, in these rich discoveries, there are also various shortcomings hidden. First, there are not many relics of the pre-Zhou culture found in this area (traces of Zhou people's life before the King of Wu destroyed the Shang Dynasty)-if this is the place where the ancient duke and father moved, then by the time the King of Wu destroyed the Shang Dynasty, Zhou people should have a hundred years of development history here, which should be able to get a lot of archaeological evidence, but few. At the same time, there are many controversies about the nature and specific period of large-scale architectural sites discovered in Joo Won?, which also affects many judgments based on this. In addition, the most important thing is that there is no trace of the tomb of the Zhou Dynasty. Although archaeologists have made many explorations in the surrounding areas, they have no results.

Since 1999, Peking University Institute of Archaeology and Culture, Shaanxi Institute of Archaeology and Institute of Archaeology of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences have jointly formed the Joo Won? Archaeological Team to carry out new field excavations in Joo Won?. After working for a period of time, Xu Tianjin, a teacher of Peking University Institute of Archaeology and Culture, began to think about the essence of Joo Won?.

Xu first discovered that among the hundreds of bronzes with inscriptions unearthed, 92. 18% were bronzes of non-Ji nobles, and only 7.82% were bronzes of Ji nobles, and most of these bronzes were in the middle and late Western Zhou Dynasty, which was quite inconsistent with the position of the political center.

Rethinking the relationship between large-scale building sites, tombs and bronzes also gives Xu his own view on the real status of the bronze cellar: perhaps these bronze cellars, cemeteries and large-scale buildings may have a trinity relationship, and they have the same owner. Then, in the site area of 10 square kilometer, where should Zhou people with Ji surname live? Could Joo Won? be just a settlement centered on different clans and nobles in the Western Zhou Dynasty, rather than the capital of the early Zhou Dynasty?

Taking this as a starting point, Xu Tianjin led his students to start a new investigation outside the site of Joo Won?, in order to find new clues to "dispel doubts".

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From June 5438 to February 2003, Xu Tianjin led students majoring in archaeology in Peking University to investigate the site of Zhougong Temple in Qishan, 30 kilometers away from Joo Won?. He was interested in this place, Xu Tianjin explained, on the one hand, because the bronzes of the Zhou Dynasty had been unearthed here in the past, and on the other hand, because building materials such as bricks and tiles used in large buildings had been unearthed here.

Zhougong Temple is located at the southern foot of Fenghuang Mountain, 7.5 kilometers northwest of Qishan County. It was built in the first year of Wude in Tang Dynasty (AD 6 18). It is a special temple built by Li Yuan of Tang Gaozu in the hinterland of Qi State to commemorate the diligent work of Duke Zhou. For a long time, due to the lack of description in the literature, people have not established any connection between this place and the capital of Zhou Dynasty.

For people who are diligent in thinking, this seems to be a gift from heaven. In just four days' investigation, the archaeological team in Peking University made an amazing discovery. 65438+February 65438+April 4, two inscriptions on Zhou Oracle bones were found under a ditch in the south of Zhougong Temple. Among them, one Oracle bone has 38 words engraved on it, which is the largest number of Oracle bones in the Zhou Dynasty so far.

This discovery caused a shock in the academic circles. Peking University and Shaanxi Institute of Archaeology soon formed the Zhougong Temple Archaeological Team, and conducted a larger-scale drilling and investigation of the Zhougong Temple site. One by one, more extraordinary discoveries began. During the excavation in the following months, the archaeological team found more than 760 pieces of Oracle bones, and initially identified more than 420 Oracle characters. These Oracle Bone Inscriptions are rich in content, including four Oracle Bone Inscriptions with the word "Duke of Zhou" written on it, which is the first record of "Duke of Zhou" in Oracle Bone Inscriptions.

What is even more shocking is that many high-grade tombs have been discovered one after another. Up to now, the archaeological team of Zhougong Temple has excavated 22 large tombs, including 4 tombs 10, 3 tombs, 4 tombs, 2 tombs, 2 single tombs and 4 tomb pits 14.

The presence or absence of tombs and the number of tombs have always been the symbols for archaeologists to judge the status level of tomb owners. According to the ancient ritual system, many tombs should have high grades. These four tombs are considered as symbols of graves. Prior to this, except for the irregular four tombs found in the Yan State Cemetery in Liu Lihe, Beijing, no real four tombs were ever found in the archaeological practice of the Zhou Dynasty.

In addition, rammed earth walls over 1.500 meters, six large rammed earth building foundations, and a large number of hollow bricks and slats in the early Zhou Dynasty were found on the periphery of these tombs. 192 medium-sized tombs were found in the "Dongsanzhao" area on the west side of the Great Tomb Site. All this makes the identity of these tomb owners extraordinary. Are these tombs the tombs of the Zhou Dynasty that scholars are looking for? Faced with these, scholars are extremely excited and cautious.

In the existing literature clues, Wang should be buried in Bi at the beginning of Zhou Dynasty. For a long time, people have always thought that the judgment of "Bi" is in Guodu Town of Chang 'an or the original area of Xianyang. During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, Bi Yuan, the governor of Shaanxi Province, erected a monument in front of two tombs in Xianyang, which was considered to be the tombs of Zhou Wenwang and Zhou Wuwang, and the local name was changed to Zhouling Township accordingly. However, after later archaeological drilling, both tombs were Han tombs. Therefore, the focus of looking for the tombs of the Zhou Dynasty is on Chang 'an County. Although there is no trace to be found so far, no one dares to easily deny the clues in the literature and immediately admit the site of Zhougong Temple that was completely unexpected before.

According to the word "Duke of Zhou" which appeared many times in Oracle Bone Inscriptions, many scholars judged that the site of Duke of Zhou Temple was probably a fief of Duke of Zhou. The Duke of Zhou, who helped the King of Wu to destroy the business and become the king, is fully qualified to be buried with the king's etiquette. In addition, the four tombs found at present are small in shape, and there is still a certain gap between their scale and the imagined tombs. Therefore, it seems a more reasonable explanation that Zhou Gongdan or his descendants were buried here as a royal gift. Jin prefers it to be both the manor of the Duke of Zhou and the capital built by his father. "All the clues indicate that this site should be a capital city."

dispel

In mid-September, 2004, the archaeological team of Zhougongmiao site received the reply from National Cultural Heritage Administration, and agreed to try to excavate two of the tombs. Trial excavation started from June 65438+1October 65438+July. The archaeological team tried to excavate Tomb 18 and Tomb 32. Judging from the current progress, Tomb 32 has been seriously excavated, and Tomb 18 seems to be safe for the time being. This seems to have pinned the hope of cracking the identity of this mysterious cemetery.

Associate Professor Tian Xudong from the Teaching and Research Section of Pre-Qin History of Wenbo College of Northwest University is full of expectations. The scholar who studied the etiquette system of the Western Zhou Dynasty for many years said that the etiquette formulated by the Duke of Zhou became one of the cores of Confucianism, which influenced the later generations for nearly 3,000 years and was deeply rooted in the spiritual and cultural life of China people. The ritual system determined by Duke Zhou at that time was not only a ritual and music system, but also an all-encompassing legal system. This includes not only the basic ideas of China's ancient political and penal system, but also the requirements of standardization and moralization of social behavior. But from the existing literature, "we know too little about Duke Zhou and his times. In this sense, we cannot overestimate this discovery. "

For Zhang Tianen, director of Shang and Zhou Research Office of Shaanxi Institute of Archaeology, who has long been concerned about the study of the capital of Zhou Dynasty, what he most wants to see is that bronzes with inscriptions or Oracle Bone Inscriptions can be unearthed from tombs. He said: "This will play an inestimable role in promoting the study of Zhou history."

But at the same time, he was cautious about the ruins of the Zhougong Temple or the idea of being the capital of the early Zhou Dynasty. He said that to meet the requirements of the capital city in the early Zhou Dynasty, not only large-scale buildings, high-grade tombs and a large number of bronzes, but also a certain population size, not too weak, so there should be large-scale residential areas in the early Zhou Dynasty. Judging from the current excavation situation, the site of Zhougong Temple does not fully possess these characteristics.

Zhang Tianen also explained that there were fewer bronzes of Ji surname unearthed in this area than those of other surnames. He believes that this is probably related to the fact that a large number of nobles named Ji were enfeoffed to other places. "Before the tomb excavation is finally completed, it is too early to draw any conclusions. But in any case, the important position of Zhou people is irreplaceable. "

On June 26, 2004 10, the excavation of Zhougong Temple site was under intense pressure on the hillside at the southern foot of Fenghuang Mountain. The late autumn sun shines on the hill where Zhou people once lived 3000 years ago, and the south is a flat platform with a panoramic view. Wang Zhankui, the captain of the archaeological team, is directing the workers to shovel the eluvial soil out of the tomb. You can clearly see the outline of a Han tomb with a pyramid-shaped mound all around. Perhaps for fear of missing any clues, the progress of the project can only be calculated in centimeters. This undoubtedly makes all those who care about the outcome of this tomb feel anxious. But no one knows what these workers will find when they dig down with their next shovel.