Why Go
Where Written Chinese Comes Into View
1. A capital under the ground
Yinxu means ruins of Yin. The capital stood on the plain near modern Anyang and was forgotten for a very long time, until bones inscribed with early characters began to turn up in a local market at the end of the 19th century. Scholars traced them to the fields near Xiaotun village, and decades of excavation followed.
The site is not a standing city. What survives is a spread of foundations, tomb pits and workshop areas, so a visit is a walk across open ground with markers and reconstructions to hold it together.
2. Writing, bronze and shell money
The oracle bones are the reason the site matters. The inscriptions record questions put to the ancestors by Shang kings, and they carry the form of Chinese writing that survives on bone and shell, which later scripts descend from.
The museum and displays also show bronze vessels, jade, and cowrie shells that served as money. A stone marker at the entrance carries the words The Cradle of Chinese Writing.
