Site of Wucheng

Site of Wucheng

The Site of Wucheng is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

Located in Wucheng Village, Shanqian Township, 44 kilometers southwest of Zhangshu City, the site sits on the hilly slopes along the upper reaches of the Xiao River, and takes its name from the village. Locals have long referred to Wucheng as "Tongcheng" (Copper City), due to the discovery of bronze artifacts and evidence of bronze smelting throughout history. With a history of over 3,500 years.

In the autumn of 1973, the Zhangshu City Museum discovered the Site of Wucheng during an archaeological survey conducted in conjunction with the construction of the Wucheng Reservoir. Since its discovery, the site has undergone ten large-scale scientific archaeological excavations carried out by institutions such as Peking University, Sun Yat-sen University, Xiamen University, the Jiangxi Provincial Cultural Relics and Archaeology Research Institute, and the Zhangshu City Museum. Based on archaeological surveys, explorations, and excavations, the site covers an area of approximately 4 square kilometers. At its center lies a mid-to-late Shang Dynasty urban settlement spanning 613,000 square meters. Excavations over an area of more than 6,000 square meters have uncovered a number of important remains, including house foundations, pottery kilns, wells, bronze-casting workshops, roads, sacrificial sites, tombs, city walls, and moats. Over 5,000 artifacts have been unearthed, including stone tools, pottery, proto-porcelain, jade artifacts, and ivory carvings. Bronze weapons such as ge (dagger-axes), spears, and knives were also found, along with pottery and proto-porcelain items such as ding (tripods), jars, basins, large-mouthed zun (wine vessels), li (tripod cauldrons), vats, bowls, yu (basins), jue (wine cups), and zun. Among the production tools made of pottery and stone were saddle-shaped knives, spinning whorls, net sinkers, beaters, pads, axes, sickles, and shovels, as well as stone molds used for casting bronze objects. Additionally, more than 200 inscribed symbols on pottery and stone molds, along with over 40 types of geometric impressed patterns on pottery, were discovered. Within the moat of the western earthen city wall section, in an area of less than four square meters and at a depth of nearly four meters, over 20 human skulls and some limb bones from the Shang Dynasty were unearthed.

Based on stratigraphic superposition and archaeological data, the Wucheng Culture can be divided into three phases: the first phase corresponds to the upper layer of the Erligang Phase at Zhengzhou, representing the early Shang period; the second phase aligns with the early period of the Yinxu site; and the third phase extends to the late period of Yinxu. The ten archaeological excavations have largely focused on the earthen city area, revealing that the city housed Shang Dynasty residential zones, pottery workshops, bronze-casting workshops, sacrificial sites, burial areas, as well as city walls and moats. Li Boqian, the chief scientist of China’s Xia-Shang-Zhou Chronology Project and the discoverer of the Wucheng Site (who also coined the term “Wucheng Culture”), stated: “What truly proves that the lower Yangtze region officially entered the civilized stage is the Wucheng Culture, represented by the Wucheng Site in Qingjiang County, Jiangxi Province. This culture, primarily distributed along the middle and lower reaches of the Gan River, is a local bronze culture heavily influenced by the Central Plains Shang civilization. It had already entered a civilized society from its early stages and established a state.” Xu Zhifan, a researcher at the Jiangxi Provincial Cultural Relics and Archaeology Research Institute who participated in the excavation and study of the Wucheng Site, wrote a poem praising the “Site of Wucheng”: “Zhangshu lush, Qingjiang fair, through time’s changes relics stay. Once saw workers cast bronze ware, remember ancestors grind stone gray. Farming, fishing, hunting speak of toil, swords and spears write history’s scroll. Reflecting on this page, I praise the feat—history’s heroes bold and sweet.”

In December 1996, the State Council designated the Site of Wucheng as part of the fourth group of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units. It is the first large-scale settlement site from the Shang Dynasty discovered south of the Yangtze River. Its discovery rewrote the ancient history of civilization in the Jiangnan region, as well as the history of China. In 2001, the site was selected as one of the “Top 100 Archaeological Discoveries of the 20th Century in China,” and the National Cultural Heritage Administration classified it as a mid-to-late Shang Dynasty urban settlement site.

Location

Wucheng Village, Wucheng Township, Zhangshu City, Jiangxi Province

Further Reading:

· Second Group of Cultural Relics Protection Units in Shanxi Province

· Fourth Group of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units