Ruins of the Ancient Lu Capital in Qufu

　　The ruins of the ancient Lu capital in Qufu are located within and around Qufu City in Shandong Province.

　　The ancient capital of the State of Lu was the seat of the Lu state during the Zhou Dynasty and had the longest duration as a capital city among all the feudal states of the Zhou Dynasty. In the early Western Zhou period, King Wu of Zhou enfeoffed his brother Duke of Zhou (Duke Dan) in Lu, granting him the title “Duke of Lu.” During the reign of King Cheng, Bo Qin, son of the Duke of Zhou, succeeded his father and established the capital here. From then until Duke Qing of Lu, a total of 34 generations ruled for 873 years.

　　For over 300 years during the Western Han Dynasty, this area remained the fief of the State of Lu. The ancient city underwent eight large-scale constructions and renovations from the Western Zhou to the Han Dynasty, later serving as the county seat. In the Song Dynasty, the county seat was moved to Shouqiu, and the city gradually fell into ruin. In 1940, the Japanese conducted surveys and small-scale excavations at the site. From 1977 to 1978, the Shandong Provincial Museum carried out comprehensive surveys and excavations, revealing the general layout of the ancient city.

　　The ancient city had a perimeter of 11.9 kilometers, with the city walls stretching 3.7 kilometers from east to west and 2.7 kilometers from north to south. The city was surrounded by a moat. There were three city gates on the eastern, western, and northern sides, and two on the southern side, with gate passages measuring 7 to 15 meters wide. Today’s Qufu City is located in the southwest corner of the ancient Lu capital, occupying only one-seventh of the original city’s area.

　　The inner city was situated in the southwest corner of the ancient city, covering about one-fourth of the larger city. At the center of the inner city lies a raised area that was the location of the palace complex and the ancestral temple. The Zhougong Temple built on this high ground during the Song Dynasty still stands today. Surrounding the high ground were government offices, commercial areas, and residential districts.

　　The northern and western parts of the ancient city were densely packed with workshops for bronze smelting, ironworking, bone crafting, and pottery firing. The western area also contained a burial ground, where more than 100 Zhou Dynasty tombs have been excavated to date. A large number of bronze, pottery, bone, and shell artifacts have been unearthed. These burial objects feature characteristics of both Shang and Zhou cultures, proving that the Lu culture of the Zhou Dynasty was formed by integrating elements of both Shang and Zhou cultures.

　　The ruins preserve a wealth of cultural relics and historic sites. To date, 36 key protected areas have been designated and preserved through various measures. The preservation of the ruins holds significant value for the study of Zhou Dynasty history. In 1961, the ruins of the ancient Lu capital in Qufu, as an ancient site from the Zhou to the Han Dynasties, were listed by the State Council as one of the first batch of Major Historical and Cultural Sites Protected at the National Level.