Ancient oracle bones most recently unearthed at the Zhouyuan Ruins site in Baoji, Shaanxi Province further challenge the Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian (around 145-86 BCE), who believed the capital of China’s Western Zhou Dynasty (1046-771 BCE) to be in Fenghao, a site to the south of present-day Xi’an, capital of Shaanxi. For more than eight decades, discoveries of oracle bones, bronze items and the ruins of a settlement found to be twice the size of Fenghao, provide evidence that Zhouyuan, corresponding to descriptions in the Book of Songs, an anthology of Chinese poetry, was the capital. Thought to be the largest city in the world at that time, more than 10,000 oracle bones have been excavated at Zhouyuan, second only to the Yin Ruins in Anyang, Henan Province, capital of the late Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BCE). Historians believe the capital was moved from Fenghao to Zhouyuan after the reign of Western Zhou founder King Wu of Zhou (1087-1043 BCE), who fought and defeated the Shang.
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