Nowadays, contemporary people are very familiar with xia shang zhou, but in fact, before 1928, some people once doubted the existence of xia and shang. In the 1920s, there was even a master who said that there was no history before the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, and they completely denied the "legendary era". But after 1928, no one questioned the existence of the Shang Dynasty anymore, because this year, the world-famous Yin Ruins began archaeological excavations. All doubts were self-defeating in front of Yin Ruins and in front of oracle bones.
In fact, long before the Yin Ruins, the Oracle was already alive. At that time, after the villagers found it, they did not know that it was an ancient relic, and they also used it as a "keel" that could cure all diseases. They ground these tortoise shells inscribed with oracle bones into powder, or directly boiled medicine, resulting in the loss of many valuable cultural relics. Later, when the epigrapher Wang Yirong was treating his illness, he inadvertently discovered that something was wrong, but unfortunately the times were not right.
Although he tried his best to acquire it, he could not do it, and later Wang Yirong committed suicide and martyrdom in 1900 due to the invasion of China by the Eight-Nation Alliance. His keel was transferred to Liu Yi, who sorted it out and compiled and published it, and the Tieyun Hidden Turtle was born. As soon as the news spread, all sectors of society were sensational, and many scholars began to join the collection. Among them, epigraphers, antique dealers, and foreigners also began to buy in large quantities, and non-scientific excavations led to a great loss of the value of oracle bones.
Due to the huge profits, the diggers were reluctant to publish the land, so it was not until around 1908 that Luo Zhenyu found out the location. This location is around Xiaotun Village in Yindu District, Anyang City, Henan Province, and in 1917, Wang Guoweikao later determined that Xiaotun Village was the capital of Pan Gengqian. After another 11 years, with the support of the academic leader Fu Si Nian at the time, the trial excavation of yin ruins began. However, when it comes to Yin Xu, we have to talk about another person, that is, Li Ji.
This is also one of the masters of the Republic of China, and today our knowledge about the Shang Dynasty is actually largely delineated by Li Ji. Later, leading figures in the field of Chinese archaeology, such as Xia Nai and Gao Goxun, grew up with him, and it was he who excavated the Yin Ruins in Anyang. In addition to the Yin Ruins, the Yangshao Cultural Site in Shanxi and the Chengziya Ruins in Jinan were also excavated by him. It can be said that the Longshan culture, Yangshao culture, and Shang culture are all present through the hands of Li Ji, who was also the first Chinese scholar to excavate archaeological sites.
After excavations began in the spring of 1929, a total of 15 scientific excavations were carried out until the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan. The palace area and the wangling area were found, and it was confirmed that the contents of the Bamboo Book Period were true, and the conclusion that Yin Ruins were the capital of the late Shang Dynasty also became an unshakable conclusion. In 1977, Li Ji's last book before his death was "Anyang", which shows the position of Yin Xu in his heart. In decades of research, Li Ji has raised several doubts, which have led to the dispute over the "Western Interpretation of Chinese Civilization" in modern archaeological scholarship.
The first is the mystery of Yin Ruins' weapons, he pointed out that Yin Ruins' five kinds of bronze weapons, namely arrow, go, spear, knife cut, and axe jin, only Go grew up in Mainland China. Other weapons have a history of independent growth in Europe, but not in China, and even foreign bronzes such as Siberian bronze have similar styles to Yin Ruins. The second point is the mystery of the sheng ware, yin ruins bronze ware imitating yin ruin pottery, Yin ruin pottery from Yangshao, Longshan shape.
Therefore, he proposed that china before the Yin Ruins did not have bronzes developed separately, but how did it suddenly arise in the Yin Ruins era? The third is the mystery of the carriage and horse, Longshan and Yangshao and Yin Ruins are not far apart, and no bronze and carriage and horse ornaments have been found inside. Yin Zhou was already able to recruit vehicles to fight, and the generality of vehicles could only be after bronze, so Li Ji believed that copper smelting technology and two-wheeled vehicles may have been imported into China by the West.
The last one is the skull, which includes the classical race (similar to the Burotes), the Pacific Black Race (similar to the Papuans), the Caucasian race (similar to the British), and the Eskimooid race. It is worth mentioning that Li Ji is a very rigorous archaeologist, and he only lists the doubts.
Until more favorable evidence, he simply said it was difficult to resemble, not certainly or not. From all kinds of points of view, he was also very embarrassed, because the glory of Yin Ruins appeared out of thin air and was difficult to explain. In fact, in the end, there is still a Xia Dynasty civilization site or earlier cultural relics appearing, they can prove these doubts, Li Ji's doubts can be explained. Of course, Li Ji's doubts may also have a certain relationship with the environment at that time, and then there is no evidence that Xi Saida is not completely certain.