Study On The Palace Site Of The Shang’s Capital City

By archaeological discovery, the palace site of the Shang’s capital city, which used to be the place forvarious political activity or daily routines, could reflect the social structure, etiquette system and otherinformation of Shang Dynasty. This thesis analysed the architectural structure and layout design of the site,with the purpose to discuss the etiquette system related.Yanshi Shang City was located in the middle part of the minor city, the south part of it is the palacedistrict, the central part is the Sacrificial-Ceremony district and the north part is the site of pool. The southpart can be divided into two parts, which lie east-west symmetrically, within which the quadrangle-stylebuildings on the east side are ancestral temples while the west side are triple-courtyard-style palace ranfrom north to south. So far as we know, there are plenty of palace as well as pool site lie inside ZhengzhouShang City, especially in the north-east part. According to the part that has been excavated, the basicstructure of palace here are also quadrangle-style. Shang period Huanbei City-site belongs to the middleShang Dynasty, within which the palace was located in the south-central part. The excavated No.1andNo.2sites, which share the common layout and structural feather with the east group buildings of YanshiShang City Site, are all in the central part and may be used as ancestral temples. Yinxu site can bedivided in to four parts, A part are all single buildings that lie east-west symmetrically, B part aremultiple-courtyard-style palaces ran from north to south, similar with the west group buildings of YanshiShang City Site. C part lies on the west of B part, which may used as the belonging of B part. D part lieson the south-east of B part, with single quadrangle-style buildings built at an earlier age that might beancestral temples.The two basic principles of choosing palace site in Shang Dynasty were as follows: firstly, the palace must be located in the central, highland of the site if the terrace allowed. Secondly, if the layout could notmeet the first principle, the palace must be located in the highland. As for the architectural structure, thebasic structure of palace is quadrangle-style. As for the overall layout, buildings of the same kind must belied in the same north-south line. As for the orientations, most of the buildings are facing northeast.Pooland fire fighting system were also considered, the pools in the city were used not only for theentertainment of the kings, but also for the need of fire-fighting.As for the regime of ancestral temples, they would never be rebuilt or abandoned once built. Therewere no relocating or removing regime of ancestral temples, this means that with the increase of dead king,the number of ancestral temple would increase accordingly. ancestral temples are single quadranglecourtyard, the north part of which were used to sacrificial the former king. Palaces used for rest lie behindthe formal(office) palace, usually lie on the northernmost. Office palace can be divided into the inner partand outer part, which are commonly triple or double-courtyard-style buildings. As for the regime ofsacrifice, there are places used for sacrificial ceremony and special sacrificial activities for certain relatedbuildings.The etiquette system of Shang Dynasty, including separation of palace and temple,quadrangle-courtyard structure, symmetrical system, inherited from the erlitou site, and influenced thepalace structure of the Western Zhou Dynasty profoundly and played as a significant role in connecting thepreceding and following palace architecture.