Among all the letter systems worldwide，the Chinese character is very unique and generates great interest.Let’s go visit the origin of Chinese characters，theYin Ruins.The Yin Ruins is the relics that the capital of the Shang Dynasty left，located around Xiaotun Village 25 kilometers northwest of Anyang，Henan.During the 14th century BC，the tenth king of Shang，Pan Geng，moved thecapital from Yan of Shangdong to Yin.Historians call this period the Yin-Shang Dynasty，which became the political，economic，and cultural center of that time.During the 11th century BC，the son of Diyi succeeded the throne and became King Zhou.He was a notorious tyrant in history that doted on Daji，his beautiful concubine，and cruelly treated his ministers and people.His violent reign led to mass betrayal.The Zhou Tribe，located in today’s Shaanxi，aligned the leuds and crusaded against King Zhou，who was defeated at Muye and burned himself at Lutai terrace.The Yin-Shang Dynasty thus passed eight generations with ten kings and ruled for 273 years.After Zhou took over Yin-Shang，the prosperous royal capital around Xiaotun gradually declined.The Yin-Shang civilization had been buried and become the Yin Ruins.
Three thousand years passed.At the end of the 19thcentury，the peasants in Xiaotun often found pieces of bones during cultivation.Some of them have carvings on surface so they call them“dragon bones”and sold them to pharmacies to treat malaria and wounds.Antique traders sold them as rare medicines to a pharmacy inBeijing，the Darentang Pharmacy at Caishikou in Beijing.
The“dragon bones”were encountered by epigraphy expert Wang Yirong.Wang Yirong was suffering from malaria then and went to get some Chinese medicine.When he checked the medicine，he was surprised by the carvings on the“dragon bones，”in shapes of human and animals.After careful examination，he realized that they are image characters of the ancient times.The carvings recorded the names of the Shang Emperors，so he realized that they are bones for augury in Shang.Along with ancient writing expert Luo Zhenyu and writer Liu E，he traced the origin and found the antique trader who transported these“dragon bones.”The trader cheated him and said the bones were from Tangyin of Henan.Wang Yirong purchased a thousand pieces of bones with a high price，but did not obtain the information on the real location of the dragon bones.Luo Zhenyu bribed out the real location of the dragon bones and continued withfurther research.The discovery of inscriptions on bonesand tortoise shells became great news for archaeology.The Yin Ruins began to attract great attention worldwide.The description of the Shang Dynasty in Shi Ji（Historical Records）by Sima Qian can be testified.It’s very regretful that after one year of research，Wang Yirong went to war against the aggression of the aligned troops of eight Western nations.The Chinese were defeated and Wang Yirong committed suicide with his wife.
From 1928 to 1937，China organized 15 excavations at the Yin Ruins.War between China and Japan broke again.TheJapaneseaggressorscametoYinRuinsforexcavationsandtransportedrelics.After1949，archaeological activities began to be organized by the Chinese government.For eighty years since its discovery，the Yin Ruins has been excavated and archives have been opened.The structure and statistics of the Yin Ruins gradually became clarified to us.The total area of the YinRuins is 30 square kilometers.There are more than50 relics of palaces，temples，and other architectural clusters.There are 12 royal mausoleums，several thousand graves for the noble and common people，1，000 sacrificial pits，1，700 some moat ditches，5 handicraft workshops，160 thousand pieces of bones，with a total number of 1.6 million words and 4，500 characters，1，700
of them can be recognized as Chinese characters.There are also quantities of bronze wares，jade wares，ceramic wares，and bone wares.The worldo fhistoryandarchaeologywas overwhelmed.
The inscriptions on bones and tortoiseshellsoftheYinRuinsareamongthemostimportant archaeological discoveries of theShangDynasty.Thecollection，compilation，decoding，and study of these inscriptions over the past centuryhave born fruitful achievements.The inscriptions are proven to be a relatively mature letter system，a stagein the legend of Cang Jie’s invention of the Chinese characters.The Chinese written language，with the jumping-off point of these inscriptions，is a letter system of hieroglyphic characters.It differs much from today’s universal spelling letters.It has gone through inscriptions on bronze，bamboo slips，and developed to written characters on paper.It has formed different fonts like regular script，running script，official script，cursive style，etc.And it also brought into being the art of Chinese calligraphy.China is a country with a vast territory and various ethnic groups and dialects.The Chinese written language has been functioning greatly to the unification o f thecountryandintercommunionof the people.
In 1961，the State Council listed the Yin Ruins as State Protected Cultural Relic.The main protected area includes the palaces and temples around Xiaotun Village.That used to be the heart of the Imperial Capital where the Emperor lived and dealt with administrative affairs.North to Wuguan Village at the north bank of HengRiver is where the Imperial Mausoleum located.All theEmperors after Pan Geng moved the capital to Yin lie beneath this place.This was also a grand sacrificial place that held slaughterings for ancestor worship rituals.
In July 2006，UNESCO listed the Yin Ruins as a WorldHeritage Site.
