Tongxing. Anyang, Henan - Yinxu, Tangyin Yue Fei Temple

On the day of the Lunar New Year, we drove five hours straight to Anyang, the northernmost prefecture-level city in Henan Province, bordering Handan, Hebei Province. More than 3,000 years ago, Anyang was the capital of the Shang Dynasty, and the capital is now called Yinxu. Perhaps because it is far from the city circle of Zhengzhou, Kaifeng, Luoyang, and Xuchang, Anyang is not a large city, and its municipal construction is relatively simple. We found a restaurant ranked second in the city for lunch. We ordered a dish called "Fengjiang Rice" that tasted like salty rice, a dish called "Anyang Stew", and half a Daokou roast chicken. We spent CNY 50 per person and didn't finish the food. The prices were reasonable. Yinxu is divided into two parts. One part is the Yinxu Museum, which records and displays the history of the Shang Dynasty. The ticket is CNY 80, and the night tour is CNY 40. It is rare to see a museum that requires a ticket. The other part is the Yinxu Ruins, including the royal tombs and ancestral temples. A ticket for both sites is CNY 50. The ancestral temple is not far from the museum and includes the tomb of Fu Hao, the chariot pit, and other tombs. The burial objects have been moved to the museum. The royal tombs are not close to the ancestral temple, and there is a paid ferry. The Simuwu Ding, now called the Houmuwu Ding, was discovered there. Of course, the Ding is not in the royal tombs or the Yinxu Museum but is on display in the National Museum. The Shang Dynasty, as a representative of slave society, became famous because of the Ming Dynasty novel "Fengshen Yanyi". The founder of the Shang Dynasty, Cheng Tang, was a wise ruler as famous as Yao, Shun, and Yu. He overthrew Xia Jie and established the Shang Dynasty. Later, the Shang ruler "Pan Geng" moved his people to "Yin", which is now Anyang City, and made Yin the capital for more than 200 years. The Shang Dynasty is also called the Yin Shang. Later, Pan Geng's nephew "Wu Ding" revived the Shang Dynasty. Wu Ding's wife and concubine "Fu Hao" was the first female general to lead troops in battle. After Wu Ding, the Shang Dynasty declined, and several generations later, "Di Xin", the King Zhou, was replaced by the Western Zhou Dynasty. Of course, the city of Zhaoge, where King Zhou died, is not in Anyang but in today's Hebi City, Henan Province. It can be understood that King Zhou moved to a new house but did not sell the old one, so Yin was still the capital until the fall of the Shang Dynasty. The Yinxu Museum has two floors. The second floor introduces the culture of the Shang Dynasty, while the first floor is a patchwork of exhibitions. The culture of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties was mainly recorded by the characters on oracle bones and bronzes, which are commonly known as oracle bone inscriptions and bronze inscriptions. The Shang Dynasty had both of these writing carriers. Bronze inscriptions are also called Jinwen, which were passed down to the Western Zhou Dynasty and later, while oracle bone inscriptions were rarely found after the Shang Dynasty. The Yinxu Museum has many bronzes and ancient jades. With the large tombs nearby, there is a sufficient supply of artifacts. However, after seeing many bronzes, they are all similar, and there are not many surprises. The collections of the National Museum, Hunan Museum, Hubei Provincial Museum, and Shaanxi History Museum are very different. The regular configurations of animal head knives and arrowheads are common, but the bronze bell is a bit novel. It reminds me of an ancient poem, "A man is judged by his clothes, and a horse by its saddle. A dog with a bell runs happily." Even dogs in the Shang Dynasty needed emotional value. Oracle bone inscriptions were first used for divination, which was popular among the people of the Shang Dynasty. They could divine whether it would rain or whether there would be a war. "Jia" refers to tortoise shells, and "Gu" refers to ox bones. Holes were drilled in the oracle bones, and then they were heated. The cracks formed patterns, which were the earliest oracle bone inscriptions obtained through divination. Later generations copied these characters, and some were further developed and evolved. This source of writing is considered a gift from nature. Many of these characters have not been deciphered or recognized to this day. For example, the characters for men and women on the toilet door are written in such a way that if you go to the wrong one, you can't blame others. The oracle bone inscriptions in the museum are not only in the exhibition area. There are oracle bone noodles in the rest area, which are said to be written on the noodles with squid ink. Few customers eating the noodles know what they are eating. Because we entered the museum in the afternoon and missed the meal time, we saw a little dragon eating noodles in the cultural and creative area. There are also stone bricks with the names of Shang Dynasty monarchs and tribal leaders before the Shang Dynasty on the stone road outside the museum. I happened to see "Wang Hai". The names of people in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties are difficult to remember. The ten heavenly stems and twelve earthly branches were used more often, and there were no clear rules for seniority and taboos. Moreover, the distinction between surnames and clan names was not uniform, and people's understanding was not uniform. For example, King Zhou was called Di Xin, but he was actually surnamed "Zi" and named "Shou". So, it is unknown whether King Zhou favored Daji, but he was definitely Shou. Wang Hai was a person before the Shang Dynasty. He led the Shang people to carry out barter trade in the Xia Dynasty and was good at doing business. To commemorate him, later generations called merchants "Shang Ren". Wang Hai is also considered a god of wealth by the people. On the first day of the first lunar month, I happened to take a picture of the stone brick of the god of wealth. The meaning of "wealth and prosperity" cannot be underestimated. I decisively refunded the ticket for the ancestral temple ruins. Saving CNY 50 is earning CNY 50. The ticket for the ruins is a package ticket, but I originally only wanted to visit the ancestral temple ruins because it is close to the museum. However, it was almost 5 pm when I left the museum, and the traffic outside was already congested. When I arrived at the entrance of the ancestral temple ruins, it was already closing time. I took a photo at the entrance as a souvenir. The road back to the hotel was still congested, and there was no staff to ease the traffic. During the trip to Henan during the Lunar New Year, I experienced the hospitality of the people in the Central Plains everywhere I went, but nothing was solved. It was truly "enthusiastic attitude, chaotic order". We hitched a ride back to the hotel from the scenic area and ordered a bowl of lamb paomo and a bowl of lamb hui mian, along with the leftover Daokou roast chicken from lunch. We finished eating early and went to bed early. The next day, we drove along the highway to Tangyin, a county under the jurisdiction of Anyang. We had to visit the Yue Fei Temple here, as it is said that there is one more bronze kneeling figure here than in Hangzhou. Traitors are more hateful than enemies. We didn't have time to take a closer look, so we took a quick photo and continued on our way. After a four-hour drive, we arrived at Shaolin Temple.