The Research On The Layout Of Yin Ruins

Most scholars agree that Yin Ruins was the capital of the later Shang Dynasty .But because of the differences Yin Ruins has presented, especially its layout is totally different from the formers, and its character has been questioned. During the following 80 years after Yin Ruins has been excavated, there is little researches on the layout. The dissertation will discuss the characteristics, derivations and influences of Yin Ruins'layout through archaeology, history, architecture and programming.The dissertation is composed of five sections:The first section is an introduction of the significance, methods of the study and the achievement of predecessors, on which the topic is based. The second section first refutes the contrary opinion which don't regard Yin Ruins as the capital of Shang Dynasty, then demonstrates its capital character by the way of studying ancient capital. Judging the quality of Yin Ruins correctly is the premise to research its layout. The third section presents the layout of Yin Capital and explicitly points out the extension of Yin Ruins and the distribution of its cultural remains. The forth section illustrates the characteristics, the derivations and the influences on the later capital cities of Yin Ruins'layout. The author sums up the main points of this dissertation in the final section.Through a comprehensive analysis, the author considers the characteristics of Yin Ruins has present which are taking the palace area as the centre, the independent unit areas surrounding and protecting the palace area, being constructed around the Huan River are of historical and realistic reasons. Shang Dynasty was the initial period of urban development of China and the cities and countryside have not been split up, thus the primitive settlement shape has still been preserved, then these characteristics were formed: taking the palace area as the centre, the independent unit areas of comprehensive function surrounding and protecting the palace area. The city is an irregular concentric circle with the palace area as the center and expresses the thought of "the community". Since Yin Ruins hasn't bounding walls , the palace area forms a kind of open condition and the Huan River on which local residents relied surrounds, imperceptibly make here become the distributing center for transportation. Inevitably the characteristics taking the palace area as the center and radiating in all directions formed, not the gridiron type layout. These characteristics of Yin Ruins have also had certain influence on the later capital cities.