1976, Xiaotun village, Anyang, Henan. A probing rod was driven into the ground. Three meters, six meters, seven meters. Suddenly the rod dropped. The experienced local workers called this "hitting a hollow." A hollow generally meant the tomb below had not been robbed. What that probe brought up was a jade pendant and a flake of red lacquer. The archaeologist in charge of the excavation was Zheng Zhenxiang. A few months later the bronzes in the tomb emerged one after another. More than a hundred of them bore the same name: Fu Hao. Zheng Zhenxiang had already seen that name many times in oracle-bone inscriptions.

1. A Platform

The story starts the winter before. In 1975, land was being leveled. Behind Xiaotun village was a platform about eighty centimeters higher than its surroundings, planted with cotton, and the village planned to bulldoze it first.

Zheng Zhenxiang took a team to drill along its edge. All the way down it was rammed earth, stretching more than a hundred meters east to west. She scraped a section clean to show the village officials: this is a house foundation, it can't be bulldozed. The officials agreed and promised to protect it.

The next year the team formally excavated the foundations. One house had been cut by a refuse pit. When they cleared the pit, there was more rammed earth beneath it, but different from the earth above. Its corner was square. House corners are usually rounded; tombs are square. It was too deep for the probes to reach the bottom. Zheng Zhenxiang said, dig down three meters first and we'll see. Then came that hollow. She said later that she had not been looking for a tomb at the time. She simply came across it.

2. A Name

The tomb held far more than anyone expected. According to Tang Jigen's account, it contained 210 bronze ritual vessels, plus large numbers of weapons and tools, with the bronzes weighing 1.6 tonnes in all. There were more than 750 objects of jade and stone.

Han Ding's count is more detailed: 1,928 objects in all, including 468 bronzes, 755 jades, and 564 bone objects, as well as more than six thousand cowrie shells.

Many great tombs at Yinxu had been robbed long ago. This is so far the only late Shang tomb of royal rank whose occupant has been identified and which had never been robbed. What excited Zheng Zhenxiang most were the inscriptions "Fu Hao" or "Hao" on 109 bronzes. She realized this was the very person so often mentioned in the oracle-bone inscriptions: a consort of the Shang king Wu Ding. The wooden coffin and chamber had long since rotted. The bronze had kept a name for more than three thousand years. The tomb had been numbered Tomb 5. From then on, people called it the Tomb of Fu Hao.

3. Her on the Oracle Bones

To know the owner of this name, we have to go back to oracle bones excavated earlier. She lived in the late Shang, around 1200 BCE. Her husband was the Shang king Wu Ding. The center of royal activity was around Yinxu, in present-day Anyang. Divination inscriptions about her survive on some 250 pieces. The Shang king divined about her battles, her childbearing, her illnesses, her journeys, farming, and sacrifices. One asks whether, if Fu Hao is ordered to lead the ritual plowing, there will be a good harvest. A queen appears in this many kinds of affairs. Her world was much larger than a palace harem.

4. Campaigns

Most striking are the wars. In the inscriptions, Fu Hao raised troops at a place called Pang and campaigned against the Tufang, the Bafang, and the Yifang. Piece 6412 in the Collection of Oracle-Bone Inscriptions carries an inscription about the Tufang. The king was preparing to raise men, and then Fu Hao's name appears. In the reading published by Han Ding, it means: order Fu Hao to attack the Tufang.

This is a divination before sending out troops, asking whether they would receive protection. It is not a victory report. How the fighting went afterward, these few characters do not say. Where exactly the Tufang were also still needs study. But when the dynasty needed someone to lead troops, the person named was her. This is not a martial reputation added to a woman by later generations after her tomb was found. Long before the bronzes saw daylight again, records of her part in warfare were already there, on the Shang's own oracle bones.

5. Bronze Axes

Seen in this light, the weapons in the tomb carry a different weight. The tomb held 134 bronze weapons, most of them dagger-axes, 91 in all. There were also 37 arrowheads and 54 ceremonial weapons of jade. Most eye-catching are two large bronze yue axes inscribed "Fu Hao." Each is nearly 40 centimeters long and as wide at the blade, and weighs about 9 kilograms. On the upper part of one, the decoration shows two tigers facing each other with a human face between them.

It is not a gentle design. Researchers usually interpret such large axes as ceremonial objects displaying military authority, not merely tools for close combat.

The objects keep the shape of power, but they do not record who swung them or when, including whether she did. Han Ding also noticed that some bronzes in the tomb, such as ring-pommel knives, are in the style of the northern steppe. The Tufang whom Fu Hao attacked were one of the groups that raided the northern frontier in Wu Ding's time. Some scholars suggest these may have been spoils of war. This is only a suggestion.

6. A Pair of Owls

Beside the weapons stands a bronze owl. Its two feet and its drooping tail support it on three points. It has a companion of similar shape. They are a pair of owl-shaped zun vessels.

The owl's belly is hollow, for holding wine. At the back of its head is a lid that opens; that is where the wine was taken out. The opening is small, the belly deep, and there is no spout for pouring, so a long ladle was needed to get the wine out. Snake patterns coil on the wings, and there are small birds and a dragon on the lid. At first glance it looks like a sculpture, but every part is designed around holding and serving wine. The craftsmen did not separate the bird's shape from the vessel's use. Wine vessels make up the largest share of the bronze ritual vessels in the tomb, about three-quarters, in fifteen types. There are 53 gu and 40 jue.

These were not assembled for a display case. They were tied to royal feasts and sacrifices. Bronzes this complex required ore, ceramic molds, furnaces, and craftsmen. What accumulated in this tomb was not only one dead person's wealth but the labor of many people.

7. Ancestors

In Wu Ding's world, the dead ancestors had not left the life of the royal house. War, harvests, the safety of the lineage could all be brought before the ancestors in divination. The wine poured into the bronzes was not just a drink at a banquet; it passed back and forth between the living and the dead. The Fu Hao of the inscriptions took part in, and presided over, many kinds of royal sacrifice.

War required prayers for protection; sacrifice maintained the royal house's bond with its ancestors. The bronze axes and wine vessels in the tomb set these two connected worlds side by side.

8. Mother Xin

The tomb holds another set of inscriptions. Five ritual vessels are cast with the words "Si Mu Xin." Researchers believe these were made by Wu Ding's sons' generation as vessels for sacrifices to their mother, Fu Hao.

According to Tang Jigen, Zheng Zhenxiang held that in the Shang kings' sacrificial schedule, Fu Hao was "Ancestress Xin," Xin being her temple name. The scholars who discussed it at the time reached a remarkably unanimous conclusion: the occupant of the tomb was one of Wu Ding's three consorts who entered the sacrificial schedule. Fu Hao died before Wu Ding. How she died, no one knows. There are divinations about her illnesses, but we cannot connect them into a story of her last days. The woman once named in inscriptions to lead troops and preside over sacrifices became, after her death, an ancestor who received sacrifice. In life, she offered wine to the ancestors. After her death, her sons offered wine to her.

Some bronzes in the tomb are cast with other people's names, such as Ya Qiang. Ya Qiang was an important military commander in Wu Ding's time. Researchers believe these were objects presented to her by nobles.

9. Those Buried with Her

Yet the sets of grave goods are not all the tomb contains. The excavation records show human sacrifice. People were buried with the tomb's occupant as sacrificial victims. The tomb preserved Fu Hao's wealth and name, and it also took the end of other people's lives into the same space. The pair of owl vessels can still be recognized today by their shape and use. The identities of these people did not survive as clearly. Who decided they should be buried with her, the available material does not settle. It cannot be said to have been Fu Hao's order, and there is no evidence that they went willingly. For the occupant of the tomb, this was the continuation of royal status. For those sacrificed with her, the price of the funeral was their lives.

10. Epilogue

The 1976 excavation brought all of this back to the surface together. The objects in Fu Hao's tomb belong to Phase II of the Yinxu culture. Because Fu Hao was Wu Ding's consort and died before him, this phase could be linked to the early part of Wu Ding's reign. The relative sequence of layers worked out by archaeologists was tied for the first time to a specific Shang king. One person's tomb drove a nail into an entire chronology. The divination inscriptions were not thereby filled out into a complete biography. Nor do the objects in the tomb tell us everything about Fu Hao's past.

But a woman once named to lead troops, who presided over sacrifices, whose childbirth and illnesses were divined, and who after death received offerings from her sons, is no longer just a few characters scattered across fragments of bone. The bronzes have kept her name with special firmness. The names of those buried with her have still not been found.

Sources and evidence

[1] F1 and F2. The 1976 excavation and the previously recovered oracle bones are distinct bodies of evidence; the inscriptions discussed here are not described as coming from Fu Hao’s tomb. Sources: F1 — https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_15876267 ；F2 — https://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/archae/2fuhmain.htm [2] F9. Zheng’s published abstract places 109 bronze vessels in the Fu Hao/variant-name group. The narrative uses ‘more than a hundred’; this is not a count of every inscribed bronze. Sources: F9 — https://doi.org/10.1017/S0362502800002972 [3] F10, on military and ritual activities, with F5 for the military inscriptions. This synthesis does not establish that Fu Hao personally used every object in the burial. Sources: F10 — https://www.cssn.cn/kgxc/kgxc_kgxl/202304/t20230420_5623450.shtml ；F5 — https://kamatiam.org/妲己一個脈絡式的歷史重建/ [4] F2, F6 and F7. No precise birth or death date is assigned, and modern or later imperial titles are not treated as identical to Shang institutions. Sources: F2 — https://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/archae/2fuhmain.htm ；F6 — https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1114/ ；F7 — https://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/archae/2fuhbron.htm [5] F10 reproduces and discusses inscription Heji 6412; compare F5 and F12. The account attributes the reading to Han Ding and preserves its divinatory character. The original bone and original collection plate have not been independently collated for this article. Sources: F10 — https://www.cssn.cn/kgxc/kgxc_kgxl/202304/t20230420_5623450.shtml ；F5 — https://kamatiam.org/妲己一個脈絡式的歷史重建/ ；F12 — https://news.blcu.edu.cn/info/1024/10446.htm [6] The visible form is described from F14; interpretation as an expression of authority follows F10. Who held this axe, and whether it was used in a particular battle, remain unestablished. Sources: F14 — https://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/archae/2zkfaxef.htm ；F10 — https://www.cssn.cn/kgxc/kgxc_kgxl/202304/t20230420_5623450.shtml [7] F3 and F4 provide the vessel descriptions: a pair, hollow bodies, three-point support, lids and the means of withdrawing wine. The animal shape is not evidence of Fu Hao’s personal preferences. Sources: F3 — https://en.chnmuseum.cn/collections_577/collection_highlights_608/archaeological_discoveries_609/202108/t20210819_251069.html ；F4 — https://www.chnmuseum.cn/zx/gbxw/202501/t20250121_270932.shtml [8] F7, with F10. Organization of labor and materials is a general account of the technology and its social requirements, not a reconstruction of Fu Hao directing a workshop. Sources: F7 — https://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/archae/2fuhbron.htm ；F10 — https://www.cssn.cn/kgxc/kgxc_kgxl/202304/t20230420_5623450.shtml [9] F7 and F1 provide the usual association of Mother Xin with Fu Hao. The article does not adjudicate disputed readings of other inscription signs, identify a son or funeral organizer, or assign a cause of death. Sources: F7 — https://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/archae/2fuhbron.htm ；F1 — https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_15876267 [10] F2 is a scholarly synthesis. The original excavation report’s human-remains pages have not been independently checked for this article, so no exact total, individual identities, manner of death or claim of willing participation is given. Sources: F2 — https://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/archae/2fuhmain.htm [11] F11 provides a reproduced excavation photograph and a source-page reference to the 1980 report, p. 10. Decayed wooden burial structures are described in F2. The photograph is not treated as a complete record of the excavation sequence. Sources: F11 — https://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/archae/2yfmtomb.htm ；F2 — https://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/archae/2fuhmain.htm

Reference list

- F1 — 唐际根：《百年考古记｜商代妇好是如何被“认出的”》，2021-12-17。 — https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_15876267 - F2 — Patricia Buckley Ebrey, ed., A Visual Sourcebook of Chinese Civilization, University of Washington: “Fu Hao’s Tomb”. — https://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/archae/2fuhmain.htm - F3 — 中国国家博物馆 / National Museum of China: “Fu Hao” Owl-shaped Bronze Zun (wine vessel), Huang Yi. — https://en.chnmuseum.cn/collections_577/collection_highlights_608/archaeological_discoveries_609/202108/t20210819_251069.html - F4 — 中国国家博物馆：《四海同春｜专家解读：翼伴灵蛇的青铜鸮尊》，2025-01-21。 — https://www.chnmuseum.cn/zx/gbxw/202501/t20250121_270932.shtml - F5 — 黄铭崇：《妲己：一個脈絡式的歷史重建》，历史学柑仔店。 — https://kamatiam.org/妲己一個脈絡式的歷史重建/ - F6 — UNESCO World Heritage Centre: “Yin Xu”, World Heritage List 1114. — https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1114/ - F7 — University of Washington, A Visual Sourcebook of Chinese Civilization: “Fu Hao’s Bronzes”. — https://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/archae/2fuhbron.htm - F9 — Zheng Zhenxiang, “10. The Si-Tu (‘Qiao’)-Mu Inscriptions Excavated from the Fu Hao Tomb,” Early China 9, supplement S1 (1986), pp. 20–21. DOI: 10.1017/S0362502800002972.（既有核查限出版社摘要 / prior verification limited to publisher abstract） — https://doi.org/10.1017/S0362502800002972 - F10 — 韩鼎：《见器如晤——在考古材料中遇见多面的妇好》，中国社会科学网，2023-04-20。 — https://www.cssn.cn/kgxc/kgxc_kgxl/202304/t20230420_5623450.shtml - F11 — University of Washington, excavation photograph and its source page; source page cites Yinxu Fuhao mu (1980), p. 10. — https://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/archae/2yfmtomb.htm - F12 — 北京语言大学新闻网：《【性别文化讲座】陈曦：从殷周妇女地位看古代性别文化特征（一）》，2009-04-27。 — https://news.blcu.edu.cn/info/1024/10446.htm - F14 — University of Washington, bronze axe photograph and source page; source page cites Zhongguo zhongda kaogu faxian (1990), p. 94. — https://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/archae/2zkfaxef.htm