Not long ago, the official account of a news agency published an article entitled "Three Hundred Years of the Dynasty, Suddenly There Was a Horse? The Mystery of Yinxu is Not Only the Oracle Bone Inscription", which mentioned that the Shang Dynasty during the Yinxu period had undergone major changes, and an Israeli scholar working in China believed that "just like the later Jin people plundered the Northern Song Dynasty royal family to the north, it was a cultural mutation caused by military conquest", so the conclusion is as follows:
The royal family of the Yinxu period belonged to different ethnic groups from the early Shang period, and the former was a horse taming group from the north. Savage but vibrant, the conqueror fused the original Early Shang civilization, improved and popularized the oracle bone inscription, and built a grand capital.
In short, it is believed that the Yinxu regime that began with Pangeng's relocation to Yin was that a certain horse-taming tribe in the north destroyed the Shang Dynasty, and then moved to Yinxu and re-established the dynasty, and Yinxu was a regime conquered and established by the northern tribes, and Pangeng, Wuding, and King Su were all descendants of a certain horse-taming tribe in the north! The question is, is this judgment justified, and what is hidden behind it?
An unjustified hypothesis
First of all, this hypothesis can be said to be unreasonable, for many reasons, such as the following three points:
First of all, the lineage of the Shang Dynasty and many deeds of the Shang Dynasty are recorded in the Chinese history books, and there is no record of the Shang Dynasty's royal family being replaced by foreign people. At the same time, the lineage of the Shang Dynasty on the oracle bone inscription can be corroborated with the historical records. More importantly, if the Yinxu Dynasty was a foreign conquering regime, then how could the Zhou people, who destroyed Shang and Chongxia, not mention this point and not emphasize the justice of anti-Shang?
Secondly, the overall cultural style of the ruins of the early Shang Dynasty and the ruins of Yinxu has not changed, and has always been "worshipping birds", and has always been "Yue" as a symbol of royal power. If the northern tribes overthrew the Shang Dynasty and established the Yinxu regime, then why did they still worship birds, and why did they still use "Yue" as a symbol of royal power? In particular, there is no reason why the northern tribes would continue to "worship birds" and not show their faith.
Third, one of the burial customs of the Shang Dynasty was the burial of dogs in the waist pit, which has been confirmed by many Shang Dynasty sites, from the early Shang to the late Shang. For example, Wuhan Huangpi Panlong City is the site of the early Shang Dynasty, which has the custom of burying dogs in waist pits. If Yinxu is a foreign conquering regime in the north, how can there be a custom of martyrdom dogs, and how can it not use its own burial customs?
Therefore, the so-called Yinxu is a conquering regime from the north, which can be described as nonsense, this is not a "bold hypothesis", and it is "bold nonsense" to put it mildly.
Behind such a hypothesis
The question is: Why did Yinxu appear to be a foreign ethnic subjugation regime in the north, a dynasty established by "a certain ethnic group from the north who kidnapped the nobles and craftsmen of the Shang Dynasty to the north (Anyang area)"? Obviously, the reasons behind it are more worthy of discussion and consideration.
First of all, there is a lack of credible history books in the West, because if you want to seriously explore the older history, you can only use archaeology, and abandon documents full of myths and legends and do not know when they were written, so archaeology has been formed. As a result, Western scholars are also full of doubts about Chinese historical books, believing that the historical materials of Xia and Shang are not credible and can only be confirmed by archaeology, and this idea has also influenced many Chinese scholars. Therefore, although the historical books clearly record the relationship between the early Shang and the Yin Shang, they are still questioned.
Second, even if you don't believe in history books, the consistency of the cultural styles of early Shang and Yinxu also shows that Yinxu cannot be a foreign conquering regime, so why is it still such a "bold hypothesis"? In the final analysis, this may still be the residual poison of the long-bankrupt "Chinese civilization in the West", that is, not believing that the Chinese can create such a brilliant civilization, and must find a foreign source for Chinese civilization. This is because, in the general history of the Western world, China is a dispensable and weak civilization located in a corner of East Asia that has no impact on the course of world civilization.
According to the logic that Yinxu is the conquering regime of the nomads in the north, then who will be the west and the west of the nomads? There is no doubt that it is the civilization of the two rivers. The logic is that the Lianghe civilization influenced the barbarian nomads in the north, and then the northern peoples destroyed the Shang Dynasty and established the brilliant Yinxu, which is not the Chinese civilization in the west, so the Chinese civilization has become the secondary civilization of the two rivers. In short, the theory of foreign conquest in Yinxu is full of imagination, but the ultimate goal is still the set of the West.
Aftermath
There are three other points worth mentioning about the topic of this article:
First of all, Yinxu is the continuation of the royal power of the Shang people in China, which has nothing to do with national pride, national feelings, and national self-confidence, but a realistic conclusion that is mutually verified by historical books and archaeology.
Second, since the 19th century, the West has been deconstructing Chinese history and culture, and it has not stopped to this day, and it has to find a foreign source and ancestor for Chinese civilization, and the Yinxu regime is just a continuation of it in the north.
Third, some scholars in China agree that the Yinxu regime is not intended to deny Chinese civilization, but it is more likely that the reason is that they are accustomed to the Western system and use Western logic and standards to deal with Chinese history and archaeology.
References: "Three hundred years of the dynasty, suddenly there was a horse? The mystery of Yinxu is not only the oracle bone inscription", etc