Shang capital refers to the Shang state of Xia Dynasty and the capital of Shang Dynasty. The Shang people frequently moved their capital, mostly due to river disasters and wars. In Xijing Fu, Zhang Heng of the Eastern Han Dynasty said, “the people of Yin moved frequently, eight before and five after.”.
The so-called “Qian” refers to the period from the first ancestor of the Shang Dynasty Qi to the time when Chengtang moved its capital in Bo to destroy the Xia Dynasty, also known as the “pre Shang” period, which lasted for more than 400 years. The Shang state moved its capital eight times during this period. The so-called “Hou” period lasted for more than 600 years from the establishment of the Shang Dynasty by the Tang Dynasty and the Xia Dynasty to the destruction of the Shang Dynasty by the Zhou people. During this period, the Shang Dynasty moved its capital five times.
In the pre Shang period, the frequent migration of tribes and cities was a remarkable phenomenon. The book of history, under pan Geng, said, “if you leave, you will have no choice.” And the preface to the book of history: “since the contract, as for the eight movements of Tang, Tang began to live in Bo and followed the previous king.” Scholars before the Tang Dynasty had been “unknown” about the location of the “eight migrations”. In the preface to the book of history by kongyingda, only the “four migrations” were listed: “the fourteenth generation of those who moved to the capital of the country eight times after the contract reached the end of the Tang Dynasty: in the ode to the Shang Dynasty, it was said that the emperor set up a son to produce a Shang, which was a contract to live in the Shang Dynasty; in the book of the world, it was said that” the emperor lived in Shangqiu “and now lives in Bo. Those who saw the Scriptures had these four migrations, and the rest were unknown.”
The classical interpretation by ludeming of the Tang Dynasty is the same as this theory: “there are only four books in the history of eight migrations.” In the Qing Dynasty, liangyusheng clearly put forward the specific location of the “eight migrations” in his “historical records”. On the basis of liangyusheng, WangGuowei made a new textual research. He pointed out in his eight moves from Qi to Cheng Tang that the order of the eight moves of Shang Xiangong was: Qi lived in Shang (Shangqiu, Henan), Zhaoming lived in Dishi, Zhaoming moved to Shangqiu (Shangqiu, Henan), Xiangtu moved to the eastern capital, Xiangtu moved to Shangqiu, shangjiawei moved to Yin (Anyang, Henan), shangjiawei returned to Shangqiu, and Tang Jubo (now 35 miles southwest of Gushu Town, Yucheng, Shangqiu).
The above commercial land is now Shangqiu, Henan Province. When Xiangtu returned to shangshangshangjiawei and moved to Yin, there was no record of moving the capital. It was only mentioned in the Shanhaijing and the bamboo annals that Wang Hai had “entrusted himself to having changes” or “bin to having changes”. This shows that during the period of Chang Ruo, Cao Yun, Ming and Wang Hai (Wang Heng), Shang Xiangong still lived in Shangqiu. Through the investigation of the geographical outlook of the “eight migrations”, it can be seen that the scope of Shang Xiangong’s activities was mainly in the border area between Henan and Shandong provinces; Moreover, although the pre Shang people experienced eight migrations, four of them were related to Shangqiu, and they returned to Shangqiu after each migration. It can be seen that from Qi to Tang 14, the Shang nationality took Shangqiu as its base or main business place, and then gradually developed by expanding outward. Shangqiu is the birthplace of the Shang nationality.
After the establishment of the Shang Dynasty, there were several migrations, that is, Zhongding Zibo (now Shangqiu, Henan Province) moved to Kan (now Zhengzhou, Henan Province), he Meijia moved to Xiang (now Neihuang, Anyang, Henan Province), Zuyi moved to Geng (now Hejin, Shanxi Province), Zuyi moved from Geng to Xing (now east of Wenxian County, Henan Province), Zuyi moved from Xing to bi (now Shandong Ze), Nangeng moved to Yan (now Qufu, Shandong Province), and he Pan Geng moved to Bo (now Shangqiu, Henan) from Yan (now Qufu, Shandong), and moved to Yin (now Anyang, Henan) in the 14th year of Pan Geng. It can be seen that only when Zuyi was in power, he moved the capital three times. After the establishment of the Shang Dynasty, several migrations also covered Henan and Shandong, and one involved Shanxi, but they were not far from the Yellow River.