Digging into Beijing's birth

New discoveries at Liulihe provide fresh clues about the origin of the city that eventually became China's capital, Wang Kaihao reports.

Just over 3,000 years ago, the newly established Western Zhou Dynasty (c. 11th century-771 BC) included present-day Beijing area under the rule of a united central kingship for the first time.

After the fierce war that ended the Shang Dynasty (c. 16th century-11th century BC), the Zhou king introduced enfeoffment system, under which land was given to the leaders of vassal states in exchange for their loyalty, to pacify people and govern the vast territory. The Yan state, whose leaders were from the same clan as the Zhou kings, rose around Beijing, marking the birth of the city.

Thanks to the Liulihe Site, which covers 5.25 square kilometers in the Fangshan district on the southwestern outskirts of the capital, more is left of that prosperous era than historical documents.

Since it was found in 1945, Liulihe has continued to yield evidence of history. In the 1970s, for example, the milestone discovery of bronze wares inscribed with the name of the Duke of Yan finally confirmed it as the location of the seat of the vassal state. Now, an ongoing round of excavation that began in 2021 has revealed more about this ancient buried city.

As previous excavations located the city walls, some scholars had speculated that they were the boundary of an inner city, and that an outer city should also exist. This theory has been confirmed by the new findings.