Xia And Shang Era Capital Of System Research

The epoch of Xia and Shang dynasties belongs to the slave society in the ancient history of China. In the stage, capital system was gradually taking shape with the state and capital emerging. We have discovered by studying that some cities in the time of Xia Dynasty characterized by capital, they are: Yangdi (to- day抯 Yuzhou in Henan) , Zhenxun( today?s Yanshi in Henan) , Shangqiu( to- day抯 Puyang in Henan) , Zhenguan( today抯 bordering place between Shandong and Henan),Yuan(today抯 Jiyuan in Henan),Laoqiu(within today抯 Kaifeng in Henan) ,Xihe (the place from today抯 west Luoyang to today抯 east Huayin in Shanxi), among which Shangqiu and Zhenguan were temporary capitals. There are capitals in Shang Dynasty such as Buo, Ao (northwestern suburb of today抯 Zhengzhou, or some place between Shandong and east Henan) ,Xiang (the north of today抯 Henan) ,Xing(Bi ,Geng,today抯 Xingtai in Hebei) ,Yan (today抯 Qufu in Shandong) ,Yin and so on. There are some archaeological sites such as Erlitou site(Zhenxun) ,Zhengzhou Shang city site(Buo) ,Yanshi Shang city site (west Buo) ,Huanbei Shang city site (Xiang) ,Yin Ruins of Anyang (Yin)etc,which are all characterized by capital. In the establishment of capital, both single capital system and multicapital system were being practiced during the era of Xia and Shang dynasties. The era took the system of the chief capital and auxiliary capital as the core of the capi- tal system. For the sake of the vast territory and the inconvenient traffic, Xia Dynasty and Shang Dynasty, which establishing a chief capital, also set up an- other or other assistant centers for the political and military purposes within the domain of the empires. The system of the chief and auxiliary capital appeared in the time of King Xia Yu, took shape in the time of King Dining, and existed in the era of Xia and Shang dynasties for a long time. On the basis of the system of ??? the chief and auxiliary capital, the chief capital was generally settled without changes or with few changes, while the auxiliary capital needed to be estab- lished and moved frequently according to the pollital and military needs. Con- cretely speaking, Xia Dynasty had been taking Zhenxun as the chief capital from King Taikang to king Jie and setting up Yuan, Laoqiu, Xihe, etc as auxiliary capitals after King Dining. Shang Dynasty took Zhengzhou Shang city as the chief capital in the early days while establishing some assistant capitals such as Yanshi Shang city, Ao, Xiang, Xing, Yan, etc. In the late Shang Dynasty, Yin was taken as a main capital with Zhaoge practically featured as an assistant cap- ital. There was no phenomenon of frequent capital moving under one capital system during the time of Xia and Shang dynasties, as there are no any reasons bringing about the capital moving in Xia and Shang dynasties. Meanwhile, relat- ed archaeological data have also proved the long time length on the existence of capitals during Xia and Shang dynasties. That is to say, the era of Xia and Shang dynasties was characterized by the relative stability of the chief capitals and the relatively frequent movenment of the assistant capitals. It?s necessary for us to point out that King Pangeng moved to Yin land from Zhengzhou rath- er than from Yan or Geng( Xing). The reason for King Pangeng?s movement to Yin land was related to the deterioration of the ecological environment around Zhengzhou, caused by the frequent floods at that time.