Ruins highlight efforts to trace, preserve roots

BEIJING, July 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- A report from China Daily

Numerous exquisite bronze and other items from the earliest recorded time of Chinese civilization are testament to a widely spreading kingship of China's Central Plains, as well as China's oldest-known writing system and multiple historical legends, and have provided significant illumination for modern Chinese archaeology since the 1920s.

The Yinxu Ruins in Anyang, Henan province, which one expert described as the "brightest star" of Chinese archaeology, connect the early stage of China as a nation around 3,300 years ago to the modern age, and have mesmerized not only professionals, but also the Chinese general public, inspiring them to trace their literary roots.

Monday marks the 20th anniversary of the Yinxu Ruins being inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. As the site celebrates this milestone anniversary, one of the most eye-catching attractions at the Yinxu Museum is something playful: a hair-drying cap shaped like an adorable owl.

Since its debut in 2024, the hair-drying cap has been a hit among tourists flocking to the museum. Featuring a lively, big-eyed owl look and strong practical value for daily use, it draws inspiration from an owl-shaped wine vessel unearthed from the tomb at Yinxu of Fu Hao, China's first-known female general and a consort of the Shang Dynasty (c.16th century-11th century BC) king Wu Ding.

Zhao Qingrong, director of the museum, said that when museum visitors wear available replica caps or clothing with elements of the Shang Dynasty, "they are no longer something strange in your textbooks. Your taste buds and skin have a real interaction with them, which lingers better than a mere glance at exhibit cabinets".

"In this way, we transfer the obscure archaeological knowledge into an accessible aesthetic experience, so that people can connect with the Yinxu Ruins in their daily lives and thus develop an emotional bond with that remote era," she added.

The Yinxu Ruins, at the site of an ancient capital of the late Shang Dynasty, have yielded numerous exquisite bronze vessels as well as oracle bones, which bear inscriptions known as jiaguwen that are carved on animal bones to record events and for fortune-telling, and constitute the earliest-known formal writing system in China.

The preservation and popularity of such products are no accident. Over the past two decades, sustained top-level guidance and cultural protection efforts have laid a solid foundation for the innovative inheritance of Shang civilization.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012, President Xi Jinping, who is also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, has shown great concern for the preservation of cultural relics and made important instructions for work in this regard.

Xi visited the Yinxu Ruins and Yinxu Museum in 2022, during which he said: "I have long been yearning for visiting here. This time I come here for a deeper study and understanding of the Chinese civilization so that we can make the past serve the present, and draw inspirations for better building the modern Chinese civilization."

He noted that fine traditional Chinese culture is the root of the Party's new theories. The ultimate approach of adapting Marxism to the Chinese context and the needs of the times is to integrate the basic tenets of Marxism with China's specific realities and fine traditional culture.

Xi also pointed out that the jiaguwen inscriptions preserved the evidence of the Chinese written language of 3,000 years ago, helping to place the beginning of China's recorded history nearly 1,000 years earlier than previously believed.

This was not the first time he highlighted the importance of jiaguwen. In 2019, Xi sent a congratulatory letter on the 120th anniversary of the discovery of the oracle bone inscriptions, describing them as the roots of fine traditional Chinese culture and saying that the discovery is of epoch-making significance to Chinese civilization and even human civilization.

Li Xiaoyang, head of Anyang's cultural heritage bureau, said Xi's words fully reflect the important role of jiaguwen.

"The discovery of oracle bones in the late 19th century came at a time of cultural crisis, yet it miraculously restored Chinese people's confidence in their ancient civilization," Li said.

He also said that 15 archaeological excavations carried out entirely by Chinese scholars at the Yinxu Ruins from 1928 to 1937 confirmed the site to be a late capital of the Shang Dynasty, making the site a sacred place in Chinese archaeology. Prior to the Yinxu findings, the earliest period in Chinese history supported by existing written records was traced to inscribed bamboo slips from the Warring States Period (475-221 BC).

"Therefore, this discovery pushed China's reliable written history back to the late Shang period, extending the timeline of documented Chinese history by about 1,000 years," said Li.

Based on that, the Yinxu Ruins became the starting point for tracing Chinese civilization.

During his Anyang visit in 2022, Xi called for attaching more importance to and putting more efforts into archaeological research to carry forward the project of tracing the origins of Chinese civilization.

Over the past decades, archaeologists have gradually built a chronological framework of the Shang Dynasty and even earlier, starting from Yinxu.

"Knowing Yinxu as the last Shang capital, we have then traced earlier periods through archaeological work. In the 1950s, archaeologists found another capital site in Zhengzhou, Henan, which was identified to be an early Shang capital based on typological comparisons of pottery vessels. Then, in 1999, they discovered another city to the north of the Huanhe River, and most scholars believe it was a capital for the middle Shang period," said Li.

"In this way, we have generally made clear the early, middle and late Shang periods' capitals, and all the research started from the Yinxu Ruins," he added.

In the 1950s, scholars discovered another large site in Luoyang, Henan, which yielded remains from both the early Shang period and an even earlier time than that. After careful analysis, they believe the site, now known as Erlitou, is a late Xia Dynasty (c.21st century-16th century BC) capital.

"As the starting point and a chronological reference framework, Yinxu has enabled us to trace back our civilization continuously," said Zhao.

Colorful progress

The 20-year World Heritage journey of Yinxu embodies the "two combinations" that Xi highlighted — integrating Marxism with China's specific realities as well as its fine traditional culture.

"As we celebrate the 20th anniversary of Yinxu's World Heritage listing this year, the important guidance that Xi delivered has become the core guideline for all work related to the site's protection, research and popularization," Zhao said.

For example, a project featuring the digital preservation of Chinese inscribed oracle bones worldwide is currently underway in Anyang. "As organic artifacts, oracle bones can be weathered, cracked or totally destroyed in the long run. Therefore, we need to record their information as quickly as possible," said Li.

To date, professionals have digitally collected about 1,500 pieces, among which 900 come from overseas museums. The workload is enormous, Li said, adding that more than 160,000 oracle bones in total have been unearthed in China, many of them now scattered across multiple countries, so the work cannot be finished anytime soon.

Li Jing, director of the Anyang Museum, said Yinxu culture is deeply integrated into Anyang's city life.

Visitors arriving at Anyang East Railway Station are immediately greeted by the station's name in jiaguwen, a visual reminder that Yinxu serves as the city's cultural calling card, she said.

In addition, specialized jiaguwen primary schools have been established to integrate the ancient script into education, while the museum itself regularly organizes activities introducing students to the history and significance of these early characters.

In addition, archaeological efforts continue to reshape people's understanding of the Shang period.

"Yinxu is the archaeological site in China with the longest continuous excavation history, the earliest excavation time, the largest revealed area, and the greatest number of unearthed artifacts," said Li Xiaoyang, the head of Anyang's cultural heritage bureau."But the more we discover, the more we find we are still ignorant of."

He added that "the site is welcoming its centenary anniversary of excavation in 2028. In the next century, it may meet more challenges but also generate more progress. It remains the brightest star in Chinese archaeology".

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SOURCE China Daily