Qishan County Zhouyuan Museum

　　The Qishan County Zhouyuan Museum is situated in Hejia Village, Jindang Township, Qishan County, Shaanxi Province. It was officially established in September 1992. Its predecessors were the Shaanxi Zhouyuan Qishan Cultural Relics Management Office, founded on April 23, 1979, and the Baoji City Zhouyuan Museum, established on March 3, 1988. It is now under the administration of the Qishan County Culture and Tourism Bureau.

　　The museum is located in Zhouyuan, historically known as "Qizhou" or "Qiyi." Human activity in the area dates back to the Neolithic Age. At the end of the Shang Dynasty, Gugong Danfu led his tribe across the Qi and Du rivers, over Liang Mountain, and settled at the foot of Qishan Mountain (now commonly called Jiankuo Ridge) to establish a state. In the late Western Zhou period, the Quanrong invasion destroyed Qiyi in the flames of war. After the Qin unified the six states, Zhouyuan belonged to the Neishi Commandery, and during the Han Dynasty, it was under the jurisdiction of Meiyang County. From the Han Dynasty onward, the affiliation of "Qiyi" changed along with the administrative setups of Fufeng and Qiyi counties. As early as the fourth year of the Shenjue era (58 BCE) during the reign of Emperor Xuan of the Western Han Dynasty, bronze artifacts were unearthed in Zhouyuan. In the 20th century, archaeologists conducted multiple surveys and excavations in the Zhouyuan area, discovering cultural remains from the Yangshao and Longshan periods up to the Western Zhou Dynasty, unearthing thousands of artifacts. In 1942, Shi Zhangru from the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, investigated the legendary sites of Tai, Bin, Feng, and Hao to identify and confirm the locations of documented Zhou Dynasty capitals, surveying the Qiyang Fort area. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the cultural heritage efforts in Zhouyuan experienced unprecedented development. In the 1950s and 1960s, institutions such as the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the Shaanxi Provincial Archaeological Institute, the Shaanxi Provincial Cultural Relics Management Committee, and the Shaanxi Provincial Museum conducted numerous archaeological surveys in the Zhouyuan area, excavating and clearing over ten Western Zhou tombs in Hejia and Lichun. From 1962 to 1966, the Zhouyuan Archaeological Team, jointly formed by the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Shaanxi Provincial Archaeological Institute, excavated and cleared 54 tombs and one large chariot-and-horse pit in Lichun and Hejia.

　　In 1973, the Shaanxi Provincial Cultural Relics Management Committee established the "Qifu Archaeological Workstation" in Zhouyuan to excavate and clear sites and tombs such as Hejia and Qijia. In March 1976, under the direct leadership of the National Cultural Relics Bureau and the Shaanxi Provincial Culture Bureau, the "Shaanxi Zhouyuan Cultural Relics Protection and Excavation Leadership Group" was formed. This group directed the "Shaanxi Zhouyuan Archaeological Team," composed of units such as the Shaanxi Provincial Archaeological Institute, the Shaanxi Provincial Cultural Relics Management Committee, the Baoji City Museum, and the Qishan County Cultural Center, together with students and faculty from the archaeology departments of Peking University and Northwest University. They successively excavated and cleared the Fengchu Palace (Temple) Site Group A, as well as the tomb areas in Hejia and Lichun, achieving significant results. On February 1, 1975, villagers from Dongjia in Jindang Township reported the discovery of a bronze ware hoard. Excavation uncovered 37 bronze artifacts, 31 of which bore inscriptions, highlighting the rich cultural significance of the Zhouyuan site and its importance in archaeological studies. On February 23, 1982, the State Council designated the Zhouyuan site as part of the second group of Major Historical and Cultural Sites Protected at the National Level. Since the 1970s, to enhance the protection, management, and research of the Zhouyuan site and unearthed artifacts, management bodies such as the Qishan County Zhouyuan Cultural Relics Management Office and the Baoji City Zhouyuan Museum have been successively established within the site.

　　Covering an area of 3,400 square meters, the Qishan Zhouyuan Museum has a construction area of 1,000 square meters, including 100 square meters for the cultural relics storage and 120 square meters for the exhibition hall. The museum enriches its collection through public donations, archaeological excavations, and field collections. It currently houses 3,375 artifacts spanning from primitive society to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, with the majority being Western Zhou relics. Among them, oracle bones as small as millet grains represent China's earliest micro-carvings, showcasing free and forceful knife work. Exquisitely crafted and lifelike jade artifacts display diverse styles and demonstrate superior jade-working techniques. Majestic and finely made bronze wares reflect the peak of the Bronze Age civilization during the Western Zhou. Additionally, the museum preserves some of China’s earliest examples of covered corridor-style quadrangle dwellings, bricks, tiles, and counting beads—valuable physical materials for studying the Yangshao and Longshan cultures.

　　The main exhibitions include the "Zhouyuan Site Western Zhou Cultural Relics Exhibition" and the "Fengchu Palace (Temple) Site Group A Exhibition." The "Zhouyuan Site Western Zhou Cultural Relics Exhibition" is the permanent display, featuring 310 sets of exhibits that illustrate the historical changes of Zhouyuan over more than 400 years, from the late Shang to the late Western Zhou period, as well as major events that took place in the region. The "Fengchu Palace (Temple) Site Group A Exhibition" mainly involves landscaping the original site, building models, and showcasing the structure of the early Western Zhou palace (temple) foundation and the distribution of artifacts.