Page 533 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

tionship between the Shang and the Zhou. Hoards of bronzes — in particular, heavy vessels
associated with the Western Zhou — have periodically been uncovered in the Zhouyuan area.
The hoard from Zhuangbai of Fufeng county is one of the more notable discoveries of recent
years, yielding bronzes with lengthy inscriptions that have provided valuable documentation
for the study of Western Zhou history.
Archaeological excavations have also provided insights into many of the individual feudal
states; the large number of tombs in Sanmenxia city have told us much about the Guo state;
burial finds in Pingdingshan city have shed light on the Ying state. Other finds include the
ancient fiefdom of the Jin state in Yicheng and Quwo counties in Shanxi; the ancient fiefdom of
the Yan state in Liulihe, Beijing; the remains of a city in the Lu state in Qufu (Confucius' home
state) in Shandong; and burial sites of the Qi state in Linzi, Shandong. The Jin and Qi discover-
ies warrant particular attention.
The Eastern Han historians Ban Gu (32-92 CE) and Zheng Xuan (127-200 CE) both situ-
ated the ancient fiefdom of the Jin state in Jinyang (present-day Taiyuan, Shanxi province), and
this identification was accepted by scholars for nearly two thousand years. During the late Ming
and early Qing periods, however, the historian Gu Yanwu (1613-1682) disputed the so-called

Taiyuan theory, believing that the Jin state was situated further south in Shanxi. His theory was
not widely accepted, but in the late 19705 archaeologists conducting surveys in the Linfen area
discovered the site of Tianma-Qucun on the border between Yicheng and Quwo counties.
There, in the course of an excavation that lasted more than ten years, they found not only a
large area of residential remains but also a vast number of Jin state tombs. Finally, in 1992, sev-
enteen tombs of the marquises of Jin and their consorts were found, conclusively resolving the
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nearly two-thousand-year-old controversy regarding Jin enfoeffment. This site has yielded an
astonishing group of bronzes and jades; the fact that jades were found in their original posi-
tions has provided invaluable information about their function.
Archaeological investigation has similarly resolved the longstanding question of the loca-
tion of the Northern Yan state. After conquering the Shang, we know that King Wu of Zhou
enfoeffed the region of Northern Yan to the duke of Zhao. Some scholars had identified pres-
ent-day Laishui (Ji county) and Beijing as the seat of the Northern Yan state during the Zhou
period, but in the absence of physical remains, the identification was unverifiable. During the
19505, archaeologists undertook a survey of Beijing city but were unable to find any trace of the
Yan fiefdom. In the 19605, they turned their attention to the rural area south of Beijing. At Liu-
lidian and Dongjialin in Liulihe they found a large Western Zhou site, and excavations over the
years yielded city walls dating to the early period, a wide swath of dwellings, and a number of
burials, as well as a large quantity of Western Zhou bronzes, jades, laquerware, and pottery. The
discovery of several bronze ritual vessels bearing inscriptions that name the marquises of Yan
confirmed that this site was the ancient fiefdom of Yan. Once again, an enigma that had en-

dured for centuries had finally been resolved. 12

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