A Typological Study of the Palace Buildings at Zhouyuan and Related Issues A Typological Study of the Palace Buildings at Zhouyuan and Related Issues Du Jinpeng* Key words: Zhouyuan Palace Styles–Developments Typology The Zhouyuan ruins, located in the northern portion of Dynasty archaeological materials from the Central Plains Qishan and Fufeng Counties, Shaanxi, are the remnants area to assist in an analysis of the characteristics and of the capital city established by the Zhou headman development of the Zhouyuan palace buildings, followed Gugong Danfu around the end of the 12th or beginning by an investigation of the relationship between the Shang of the 11th century BCE. Later, King Wen moved the and Zhou cultures. capital to the city of Feng, but Zhouyuan remained an I. The Archaeological Discovery of the important center of Zhou governmental activities until the later years of the Western Zhou Dynasty. Zhouyuan Palace Buildings Through several years’ effort of the archaeologists, a 1. The Fengchu Ruins are situated atop a large rammed- number of rammed earth foundations associated with earth platform measuring 45.2m long from north to south, palace buildings have been discovered. The principal 32.5m wide from east to west, and approximately 1.3m among these include the building foundations at the four high. This was a complex of buildings with two court- sites of Fengchu in Qishan County; and Shaochen, yards arranged along the longitudinal axis, opening Yuntang, and Qizhen in Fufeng County (Figure 1). southwards at an orientation of 170°. It was comprised Based on a summary of the typology of the palace of a gate-screen, two gatehouses, a front hall, a rear building ruins at Zhouyuan, this article adduces Shang building, and two side rooms on the eastern and western sides (Figure 2). Based on potsherds contained in Palace Buildings the oracle bone pits associated with the western side room, the sacrifi- Zhujia cial pits associated with the front hall, cellar-pits in the western side Qiangjia Fengchu room and the western portion of the Yuntang rear courtyard, and other trace remains, it can be determined that Dongjia the Fengchu buildings were first built in the Proto-Zhou period and Qizhen that their period of use was nearly Hejia identical to the lifespan of the West- ern Zhou dynasty. Shaochen Considering the building style Licun and the long period of use of the Qijia Xujia Fengchu ruins, the fact that two stor- Figure 1. The locations of the Zhouyuan Palace Ruins age caches in the western side room * Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing 100710 ([email protected]) 164 Chinese Archaeology Du Jinpeng N H28 Rear building H9 H16 Steps H8 H29 H17 Steps H2 Path H20 Western rear Eastern rear courtyard courtyard H19 H3 H1 H10 H6 H4 Front hall Western side Eastern Steps Steps Steps room side room H14 Steps Eastern corridor Western corridor Western Front courtyard Steps H7 Steps Steps H31 H11 H18 H12 H13 Western Eastern gatehouse gatehouse Doorway Steps Steps Drainage pipe Gate-screen H21 H22 H26 H27 H23 H25 H24 0 10m Figure 2. Plan of the Fengchu Building Ruins Volume 10 165 A Typological Study of the Palace Buildings at Zhouyuan and Related Issues N F10 F6 F1 F13 F12 F8 F2 F15 F11 F3 F5 0 20m Figure 3. Plan of the Shaochen Building Complex preserved large numbers of in- scribed oracle bones, and other points, the author is prone to believe N that the ruins are those of an ances- tral temple. Drainage Pipe 2. The Shaochen Ruins in Fufeng Stone Flake Pit County are comprised of 15 sepa- 1 8 14 rate ruins discovered to date, includ- 2 18 21 32 9 15 25 22 ing a lower stratum of 2 buildings 3 10 19 33 4 16 26 11 F1 (F7 and F9), incompletely K4 27 H8 12 23 34 1 2 20 preserved; and an upper level of 13 5 28 5 3 17 35 4 6 24 29 H3 6 7 13 36 buildings, of which F3, F5, and F8 F5 1 30 7 8 9 2 3 31 are relatively large and preserved 12 13 10 37 4 11 14 F2 relatively well (Figure 3). 15 5 16 17 6 Pebble-paved The ruins that have been exca- 18 19 7 Path 9 8 3 10 11 vated at Shaochen to date represent 2 1 only a portion of the extensive ex- 2 3 F3 1 panse of a palace complex present F8 4 9 8 7 5 at one point, and the relations be- 6 tween individual buildings are somewhat unclear. Based on the portions already known, it seems Architecture of the Han Dynasty that building F8 was the main body and that it comprised a single archi- 0 10m tectural unit along with buildings F11, F15, F10, F13, F6, and F12. Figure 4. Plan of the Yuntang Building Ruins This complex included a front hall 166 Chinese Archaeology Du Jinpeng (F8), left and right wings (F11 and F15), and rear cham- tional palaces), while F8 was the gatehouse. Enclosures bers (F10, F13, F6, F12). drawn out from both sides of F8 bent at right angles, Although the central axis of building F5 deviates forming a Д -shape enclosing the three palace halls. somewhat from those of F8 and F13, it corresponds with F5 was situated on the west side of the compound the overall north-south orientation of the above complex. described above and belonged to a distinct architectural Based on its position, scale, and structure, it may also unit. have been a component of this complex. Judging from stratigraphic evidence, F1-F8 belonged As for buildings F1, F2, F4, F14, and others, there is to the late Western Zhou period. The excavators be- as yet no way to discuss the issue of their likely lieve that they were the ancestral temple compound of a groupings. high-ranking Western Zhou aristocratic family. Based on stratigraphic evidence, the excavators sur- 4. The Qizhen Ruins: The Western Zhou ruins at mise that the buildings of the lower stratum might have Qizhen include buildings F4, F7 and F9 (Figure 5). been built at the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty and This group of buildings belonged to a single archi- were probably abandoned around the latter phase of the tectural complex. F4 was the main hall and was situ- early Western Zhou. Those of the upper stratum were ated on the north side facing south; F9 was a gatehouse probably first built in the Mid-Western Zhou period and oriented northward facing F4; F7, to the southeast of abandoned during the late Western Zhou. F4, was the east wing. There was probably a correspond- Judging from their layout and scale, the buildings of ing west wing situated to the southwest of F4 and facing the Shaochen group were probably a palace compound F7; unfortunately, it has already been completely of the Western Zhou era; there can be little doubt concerning this point. Among them, F2, F3, F5 and F8 were probably devoted to political N and religious ritual. F5 and F8 seem 60 39 29 53 44 38 30 11 to have been intended as separate 28 1 inner and outer courts. F3 is likely 43 37 52 12 59 31 27 2 to have been intended for ritual ac- F4 58 51 42 13 3 tivities different from those con- 4 57 36 50 ducted at F5 and F8. The row of 32 26 5 49 41 14 35 33 6 buildings with F13 at its heart was 56 45 25 40 15 7 probably used as residential space. 48 34 24 23 46 22 Among these, F13 may well have 16 8 55 21 been the“ central hall;” F6 and F10, 17 54 47 19 9 residential rooms; and F12, the east- 18 10 20 ern kitchen (as it still contains traces of a burnt floor surface, etc.). 3. The Yuntang Ruins include buildings labeled F1, F2, F3, F5 and F8 (Figure 4). These have been di- 61 F9 vided into two compounds. F1, F2, F7 62 F3, and F8 have been assigned to one compound, based on the fact that they made up a coherent four-sided courtyard in a Д -shaped plan. F1 was the main building (i.e., the main 0 10m palace hall) and was situated on the north side facing south; F2 and F3 were subsidiary buildings (i.e. addi- Figure 5. Plan of the Qizhen Building Ruins Volume 10 167 A Typological Study of the Palace Buildings at Zhouyuan and Related Issues destroyed. F6, discovered in this location, is definitely damaged, it is impossible to know whether or not they not the ruin of a palace hall. had subsidiary buildings, and so the shapes of their origi- This group of buildings belonged to the late Western nal plans are also unclear. Zhou period; they may have been an ancestral temple. There are further differences between the two types described above. First, with respect to the orientation II. The Types of the Zhouyuan Palace of the buildings, those of Sort A faced southwards with Buildings an eastern inclination, while those of Sort B faced south- 1. Based on the characteristics of the arrangement of the wards with a western inclination. Second, the amounts buildings, the four major building ruins discovered at of roof tiles differed between the two; the buildings of Zhouyuan to date can be divided into two sorts: Sort A, Sort A used very few roof tiles, while those of Sort B “closely-linked” style and Sort B,“ scattered-point” style.