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73-586: The project was directed by professor Li Xueqin of Tsinghua University in Beijing, and involved around 200 experts. It used radiocarbon dating , archaeological dating methods, historical textual analysis, astronomy, and other methods to achieve greater temporal and geographic accuracy. Preliminary results were released in November 2000 and the final report was published in June 2022. Among other findings, it dated

146-589: A Soviet -style command economy to a socialist market economy ( socialism with Chinese characteristics ), the plans since the 11th Five-Year Plan for 2006 to 2010 have been referred to in Chinese as "guidelines" ( Chinese : 规划 ; pinyin : guīhuà ) instead of as "plans" ( Chinese : 计划 ; pinyin : jìhuà ). Medium and long-term planning are central to coordinating state activity across many policy areas in China and China's Five-Year Plans are one of

219-771: A Chinese historian, archaeologist, and palaeographer . He served as Director of the Institute of History of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences , Professor of the Institute of Sinology of Tsinghua University , Chairman of the Pre-Qin History Association of China, and participated in the Xia–Shang–Zhou Chronology Project . Li was born 28 March 1933 in Beijing . After finishing middle school in 1948, he tested number one in

292-567: A greater focus on consumer goods. It called for enhancing "eating, clothing, and daily use" items ( chi, chuan, yong ). During discussions of the Third Five Year Plan, Mao acknowledged that during the Great Leap Forward, "We set revenue too high and extended the infrastructure battlefront too long," and that it was "best to do less and well." The Plan ultimately called for the prioritization of national defense in

365-514: A new phase, one of exploration and development. In April 1979, the central government formally put forward new principles of readjustment, reform, rectification and improvement. According to China Daily , the 6th Plan was first planned as part of the "Ten Year National Economic Development Plan Outline for 1976–1985" until the State Council decided to redraft the country's mid- and long-term plans in 1980. The 1982 national planning meeting

438-574: A research assistant to Guo and Chen. In 1952, the Communist government reorganized Chinese universities in the Soviet model. As part of the reorganization, Tsinghua became a specialized engineering college, and its schools of humanities, science, and law were merged into Peking University (PKU). Instead of moving to PKU with the philosophy department, Li chose to stay with the Institute of Archaeology, and never finished college. In 1954, Li moved to

511-410: A role of verifying traditional histories. They argue that this forces archeological evidence into a framework of a single sequence of similar dominant states, as depicted in the histories and reflected in the title "Three Dynasties". However, when evaluated on its own merits, the evidence reveals a much more complex origin of Chinese civilization, with many other advanced states that are not mentioned in

584-627: A sequence of dynasties, the Xia , Shang and Zhou . Sima Qian felt able to give a year-by-year chronology back to the start of the Gonghe Regency in 841 BC, early in the Zhou dynasty. For the period before that date, his sources (now mostly lost) were unreliable and inconsistent, and he gave only lists of kings and accounts of isolated events. Later scholars were unable to push a precise chronology back past Sima Qian's date of 841 BC. Many elements of

657-781: A series of social and economic development initiatives issued by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since 1953 in the People's Republic of China . Since 1949, the CCP has shaped the Chinese economy through the plenums of its Central Committee and national party congresses . Planning is a key characteristic of the nominally socialist economies , and one plan established for the entire country normally contains detailed economic development guidelines for all its regions. In order to more accurately reflect China's transition from

730-496: A site (now called Yinxu ) near Anyang , north of the Yellow River in modern Henan province. The inscriptions on the bones were found to be divination records from the reigns of the last nine Shang kings, from the reign of Wu Ding . Moreover, from the sacrificial schedule recorded on the bones it was possible to reconstruct a sequence of Shang kings that closely matched the list given by Sima Qian. Archaeologists focused on

803-497: A speech in which he called for historians to "leave the 'Doubting Antiquity' period" and join the "Believing Antiquity" movement, in contrast to the Doubting Antiquity School that had been highly influential since the 1920s. Scholars of this viewpoint argue that archaeological discoveries of recent decades have generally substantiated Chinese traditional accounts rather than contradicted them. Li himself favoured

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876-496: A third historiographical approach, which he termed "Interpreting Antiquity." Li was involved in several controversies, including writing a smear piece on his own mentor Chen Mengjia. Later, Li deeply regretted slandering Chen and said he tried to restrain himself from writing too harshly. When the Anti-Rightist Campaign began in 1957, the eminent scholar Chen Mengjia was labeled a Rightist and an enemy of

949-546: A young man. He said that he was pressured by the Institute of Archaeology to write the review and that he kept the criticism to the minimum and took care to only criticize Chen's scholarship and avoided applying more damaging political labels such as "Rightist". Li died in Beijing on 24 February 2019, at the age of 85. Five-year plans of the People%27s Republic of China The Five-Year Plans ( Chinese : 五年计划 ; pinyin : Wǔnián Jìhuà ) are

1022-585: Is the conquest of the Shang by the Zhou, described in traditional histories as the Battle of Muye , though the site of the battle has not been identified. Previous chronologies had proposed at least 44 different dates for this event, ranging from 1130 to 1018 BC. The most popular have been 1122 BC, calculated by the Han dynasty astronomer Liu Xin , and 1027 BC, deduced from a statement in the "old text" Bamboo Annals that

1095-596: The CCP Central Committee in the fall prior to the start of a Plan period. More detailed plans are approved by the National People's Congress the following March. These plans establish national priorities and outline how they will be met. Administratively, the Plans result in the development of numerous specific action plans across different levels of administration. These programs evolve over

1168-608: The Central Military Commission , and the full proposal for the plan was released following the plenum and approved by the National People's Congress on 14 March 2011. The plan shifted emphasis from investment towards consumption and development from urban and coastal areas toward rural and inland areas – initially by developing small cities and greenfield districts to absorb coastal migration. The plan also continued to advocate objectives set out in

1241-682: The Communist Party for his outspoken opposition to the simplification of Chinese characters . Li, then a research assistant to Chen, published a review that criticized Chen's scholarship and attacked him as "arrogant" and having "an extreme tendency to boast". In 1966, at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution , Chen was again severely persecuted for his ideas. In the 2000s, American journalist Peter Hessler interviewed Li and surprised him with questions about Chen Mengjia. In response, Li expressed deep regret of his actions as

1314-544: The Shang dynasty king whose reign produced the oldest known oracle bone records. These dates are here compared with the traditional dates and those used in the Cambridge History of Ancient China : Earlier dates are given more approximately: Coverage of the project in non-Chinese press focused on the conflict between nationalism and scholarship. However, not every member of the chronology project agrees on all of

1387-652: The Warring States period , facilitating the formation of a new branch of Chinese paleography . After the major disruptions of the Cultural Revolution (1966–76), Li participated in the research of the major archaeological discoveries of Mawangdui , Shuihudi , and Zhangjiashan , making important contributions to the understanding of ancient cultural history of the Warring States and the Qin and Han dynasties. From 1985 to 1988, Li served as vice director of

1460-465: The great sparrow campaign , which led to an infestation of locusts, as well as unprecedented natural and weather based issues, caused a huge decrease in food production. Simultaneously, rural officials, under huge pressure to meet their quotas, vastly overstated how much grain was available. Thus, a massive nationwide famine ensued. The policies of the Second Plan's Great Leap Forward departed from

1533-580: The " Made in China 2025 " plan. The 14th Five-Year Plan was drafted during the fifth plenum of the 19th Central Committee held from 26 to 29 October 2020. Han Wenxiu, the deputy director of the Office of the Central Finance and Economic Commission, said CCP general secretary Xi Jinping had personally led the drafting process through multiple meetings of the Politburo, its standing committee, and

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1606-454: The "old text" Bamboo Annals the day dawned twice. The Project adopted (without acknowledgement) the proposal of the Korean scholar Pang Sunjoo (方善柱) that this referred to an annular solar eclipse at dawn that occurred in 899 BC. Other scholars have challenged both this interpretation of the text and the astronomical calculations involved. Perhaps the most significant event requiring dating

1679-423: The 10th Five-Year Plan. The 11th Five-Year Plan introduced a new category of "binding targets" ( yueshuxing zhibiao ) intended as government promises. These binding targets have since been used especially in non-economic policy areas like environmental protection and land management. Of 22 targets listed in the 11th Five-Year Plan, eight of them were binding targets. These binding targets were incorporated into

1752-584: The 1976–1985 Ten Year Plan Outline of Developing National Economy (Draft) in 1975, which included the 5th Five-Year Plan. In March 1978, the Ten Year Development Outline was amended because the original version in 1975 stipulated that by 1985, steel and petroleum outputs should reach 60 and 250 million tons respectively, and 120 large projects, including 10 steel production bases, nine non-ferrous metal bases, eight coal bases and 10 oil and gas fields, should be built. To achieve these goals,

1825-540: The American writer and journalist Peter Hessler , Li was able to do research while satisfying the Communist Party . He wrote many books, several of which have been translated into English, including Eastern Zhou and Qin Civilizations (translated by Kwang-chih Chang ), The Wonder of Chinese Bronzes , Chinese Bronzes: a General Introduction , and The Glorious Traditions of Chinese Bronzes . In 1993, Li made

1898-597: The CPC had determined that gross value of agricultural products should increase 270%; in fact, the gain was a considerably more modest 35%. The country saw increases in capital construction over those observed during the first Five-Year Plan and also saw significant increases in industry (doubling output value) and income (workers and farmers, increase by as much as 30%). However, the Great Leap Forward , which diverted millions of agricultural workers into industry, and

1971-558: The Conference of CCP Delegates convened to adopt the "Proposal for the Seventh Five Year Plan" which was set to begin in 1986. The proposal demonstrated a shift from direct government control over enterprises to using indirect macroeconomic controls to "establish a new system for the socialist economy." In March 1986, the State Council submitted "The 7th Five Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of

2044-514: The Eleventh Five-Year Plan to enhance environmental protection, accelerate the process of opening and reform, and emphasize Hong Kong's role as a center of international finance. It prioritized more equitable wealth distribution, increased domestic consumption, and improved social infrastructure and social safety nets. Improvements in the social safety net were intended to reduce precautionary saving . The plan sought to expand

2117-836: The Erlitou site. The time span of the Xia dynasty was taken from reign-lengths given in the Bamboo Annals and from a conjunction of five planets during the reign of Yu the Great recorded in later texts. As this period was longer than the time spanned by the Erlitou culture, the project also included the later phases of the Wangwan III variant of the Longshan culture within the Xia period. The Xia–Shang–Zhou Chronology Project concluded precise dates for accessions of rulers from Wu Ding ,

2190-541: The First Five-Year Plan was quite successful, especially in those areas emphasized by the Soviet-style development strategy. During this Plan period, China began developing a heavy-industrial base and brought its industrial production above what it had been prior to war. China also raised its agricultural production to above prewar levels, resulting primarily from gains in efficiency brought about by

2263-604: The Institute of History of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (later of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences ). In the 1950s, he systematically collated Shang dynasty oracle bones excavated from Yinxu , studied the events and historical geography from the oracle scripts, and identified oracle bones from the Western Zhou period. In the late 1950s, he studied the bronze inscriptions , pottery inscriptions, seals , coins , bamboo and wooden slips , and silk texts from

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2336-456: The Institute of History of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, later becoming director. Beginning in 1996, he served as chief scientist and director of the government-commissioned Xia–Shang–Zhou Chronology Project . In August 2003, Li returned to his alma mater Tsinghua University as a professor. After 2008, he focused his research on the newly recovered Tsinghua Bamboo Slips . Li was considered an important Chinese historian. According to

2409-1075: The People's Republic of China, 1986–1990" to the Fourth Session of the Sixth National People's Congress for review and ratification. It was the first time in China's history that an all-round plan for social and economic development was created at the start of a new five-year plan. The national goals of the Plan included speeding up development on the coast, with inland regions role's being to "support and accelerate coastal development." During this Plan period, different regions of China were encouraged to develop by leveraging their respective advantages. Coastal regions were instructed to focused on "the restructuring of traditional industries, new industries, and consumer goods production." Western regions were to focus on processing and agriculture. In central regions, energy, construction, and minerals were

2482-444: The Plan, considerable success was achieved. In 1977, the gross output value of industry and agriculture reached 505.5 billion yuan, 4.4% above-target and representing an increase of 10.4% compared with the previous year. Gross domestic product for 1978 reached 301 billion yuan, an increase of 12.3% compared with 1977, and an increase of 19.4% compared with 1976. However, during this period, the Chinese economy developed too quickly, and

2555-501: The United States would ultimately invade China. Support among leadership for Mao's proposed Third Front construction increased as a result and changed the direction of the Third Five Year Plan. The Fourth Five Year Plan sought decentralization and prioritized "small scale, indigenous, and labor intensive" development projects over "large scale, foreign, and capital intensive" development. The central government stipulated

2628-641: The Western Zhou (whose end point is known to be 770 BC) had lasted 257 years. A few documents relate astronomical observations to this event: The strategy adopted by the Project was to use archeological investigation to narrow the range of dates that would need to be compared with the astronomical data. Although no archaeological traces of King Wu's campaign have been found, the pre-conquest Zhou capital at Fengxi in Shaanxi has been excavated and strata at

2701-729: The Yellow River valley in Henan as the most likely site of the states described in the traditional histories. After 1950, remnants of an earlier walled city of the Erligang culture were discovered near Zhengzhou , and in 1959 the site of the Erlitou culture was found in Yanshi , south of the Yellow River near Luoyang . Radiocarbon dating suggests that the Erlitou culture flourished c. 2100 BC to 1800 BC. They built large palaces, suggesting

2774-417: The Zhou conquest of the Shang in the mid-11th century BC instead of the 12th. In 1994, Song Jian , a state councillor for science, was impressed on a visit to Egypt by chronologies stretching back to the 3rd millennium BC. He proposed a multi-disciplinary project to establish a similar chronology for China. The project was approved as part of the ninth five-year plan (1996–2000). A preliminary report of

2847-422: The Zhou conquest. The project settled on a date near the shortest of these intervals. The four phases of the Erlitou culture have been divided between the Xia and Shang dynasties in different ways by various prominent archaeologists. The project assigned all four phases to the Xia, identifying the establishment of the Shang dynasty with the building of the Yanshi walled city 6 km (3.7 mi) north-east of

2920-415: The above passages from the classics with the same astronomical events, but here it resulted from a thorough consideration of a broader range of evidence. Other scholars have raised several criticisms of this process. The connection between the layers at the archaeological sites and the conquest is uncertain. The narrow range of radiocarbon dates are cited with a less stringent confidence interval (68%) than

2993-490: The approach in the Soviet-inspired First Plan, which stressed central command and extensive planning. Instead, the approach entailed local areas marshalling all available resources for large projects. In 1960–61, attempts were made to redirect twenty million workers into agricultural production and to reallocate investment into those industrial sectors that could further support agriculture. This shift

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3066-476: The approach in the first Five-Year Plan was for the government to buy them out, including through coercing reluctant sellers if necessary. Government control over industry was increased during this period by applying financial pressures and inducements to convince owners of private, modern firms to sell them to the state or convert them into joint public-private enterprises under state control. The Plan strained agricultural production. In terms of economic growth,

3139-615: The beginning of the Xia to c.  2070 BCE , the Shang to c.  1600 BCE , and the Zhou to c.  1046 BCE . However, some scholars have disputed several of the project's methods and conclusions. The traditional account of ancient China, represented by the Records of the Grand Historian written by Sima Qian in the Han dynasty , begins with the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors , leading through

3212-415: The course of the plan period. As academic Sebastian Heilmann observes, this process is best viewed as a planning coordination and evaluation cycle rather than a unified blueprint. China's Five-Year Plans have been praised for their efficiency, capabilities and their importance to rapid economic growth, development, corporate finance and industrial policies . Having restored a viable economic base,

3285-498: The criteria for local cadre performance evaluations. The Plan also reflected a change in terminology to the allocation of administrative resources via "programs" rather than "plans." The Twelfth Five-Year Guideline was debated in mid-October 2010 at the fifth plenary session of the 17th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party , the same session in which Xi Jinping was selected as Vice Chairman of

3358-412: The dates. Indeed, the project has been unafraid to contest dates proposed even by the director. This suggests that the dates are being considered on their own merits rather than by deferring to authority, and that politics does not influence the detailed work of the project. In addition to methodological concerns, scholars have complained that the project is part of a tradition of relegating archaeology to

3431-452: The day in the sexagenary cycle , the phase of the moon, the month and the year of reign. However, the rules of the Western Zhou lunisolar calendar , in particular the start of a month or year and the insertion of intercalary months, were not fixed. In addition, the current king is typically not identified. Occasionally an unusual astronomical event was recorded. A key reference point was the accession of King Yih of Zhou , when according to

3504-402: The day in the sexagenary cycle. However, calculations using a longer ritual cycle were used to date the reigns of the last two Shang kings. Mentions of five lunar eclipses in oracle bone divinations from the late Wu Ding and Zu Geng reigns were identified with events spanning the period from 1201 and 1181 BC, from which a start date for Zu Geng's reign was derived. The start date of Wu Ding's reign

3577-456: The draft report was issued in 2000 are inconsistent with the project's dates for the Western Zhou. For example: The final report acknowledged many of these problems, but did not alter the date table issued in the preliminary report. Footnotes Works cited Li Xueqin Li Xueqin ( Chinese : 李学勤 ; Wade–Giles : Li Hsüeh-ch'in , 28 March 1933 – 24 February 2019) was

3650-535: The drafting panel that he headed. The Plan was drafted against the backdrop of worsening China–United States relations and the COVID-19 pandemic , which caused China's economy to shrink in the first quarter of 2020 – the first time in 44 years. Continuing themes from the prior two plans, the Fourteenth Five-Year Plan also seeks to boost the services sector, increase urbanization, and expand

3723-554: The entrance examination of the electrical engineering department of the National Beiping High School of Industry. However, he was unable to attend the school because a medical examination misdiagnosed him with tuberculosis . After graduating from high school, he was admitted to Tsinghua University in 1951, where he studied philosophy and logic under professor Jin Yuelin . At Tsinghua, Li's main hobby

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3796-673: The existence of an organized state. More recently the picture has been complicated by the discovery of advanced civilizations in Sichuan and the Yangtze valley, such as Sanxingdui and Wucheng , of which the traditional histories make no mention. Until the mid-20th century, many popular works, both Chinese and Western, used a traditional chronology calculated by Liu Xin early in the first century AD. However, modern scholars studying inscriptions on Shang oracle bones and Zhou bronzes were proposing shorter chronologies, for example typically placing

3869-563: The focus on developing industry, northeast China was the region which received the greatest share of state funds during the First Plan. The First Five-Year Plan phrased its developmental focus in the terminology of revolution. It attributed the backwards state of China's economy to contradictions between the developing productive forces and the capitalist relations of production . Agriculture, fishing, and forestry would be collectivized. Regarding commercial and services industries,

3942-533: The focus. During the 10th Five-Year Plan, the strategic purpose of planning shifted from narrow, quantitative growth targets to coordinating structural and qualitative changes in economic and social growth targets. The Plan described science, technology, and human resources as decisive areas to improve for China to catch-up with the most advanced countries. Focuses included growing the services sector, developing domestic economic demand, rural urbanization, and western development. Environmental sustainability

4015-399: The government would invest 70 billion yuan in infrastructure construction, equaling total national investment over the previous 28 years. These were impossible targets and ran counter to economic development rules. The Plan put forward suggestions to set up an independent and comparatively complete industrial system and national economic system from 1978 to 1980. With the implementation of

4088-665: The histories. A session of the Annual Conference of the Association for Asian Studies in 2002 was devoted to the preliminary report, where its methods were criticised by David Nivison , among others. An international conference on chronology arranged for October 2003 was postponed due to the SARS outbreak, but never rescheduled. The Project's dates have however become the orthodox chronology in Chinese textbooks and reference works. Some bronze inscriptions discovered since

4161-456: The leadership under Chairman Mao Zedong , Premier Zhou Enlai , and other revolutionary veterans sought to implement what they termed a socialist transformation of China. The First Five-Year Plan was deeply influenced by Soviet methodologies and assistance from Soviet planners. Industrial development was the primary goal. With Soviet assistance in the form of both funds and experts, China began to develop industries from scratch. Consistent with

4234-450: The light of a possible big war, actively preparing for conflicts and speeding up construction in three key areas; national defense, science and technology, and industry and transport infrastructure. The turn towards a greater emphasis on developing heavy industries and national defense industries was prompted by the Gulf of Tonkin incident , which increased fears among Chinese leadership that

4307-481: The most prominent examples of this approach. Through the Five-Year Plans, the CCP and the government establish their policy priorities. Five-Year Plans continue to be a central means of organizing policy in China, especially in the areas of environmental protection , education , and industrial policy . The initial formulation of a Five-Year Plan begins with fairly short, general guidelines prepared by

4380-401: The project was issued in 2000. After lengthy review, the full report was sent to the publishers in 2019 and the offices of the Project were closed, with their materials sent to the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences . The full report was published in June 2022 after more than a decade of revision. Although the final report noted that some archaeological finds after

4453-468: The publication of the preliminary report were inconsistent with its findings, the chronology of the preliminary report was adopted without change. The Project used a combination of methods to attempt to correlate the traditional literature with archeological discoveries and the astronomical record. The contemporary evidence for the Western Zhou consists of thousands of bronzes, many bearing inscriptions. Around 60 of these record dates of important events as

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4526-401: The reorganization and cooperation achieved through cooperative farming. Although urbanization had not been a specific goal of the plan's focus on industrialization, industrialization also prompted extensive urban growth. By 1956, China had completed its socialist transformation of the domestic economy. This plan was created to accomplish several tasks, including: The Political Bureau of

4599-586: The services industry in order to increase employment and continue urbanization to help raise real wages . Continuing themes from the Twelfth Five-Year Plan, the Thirteenth Five-Year Plan also sought to boost the services sector, increase urbanization, and expand the social safety net to reduce precautionary savings. It also emphasized innovation, the completion of building a moderately prosperous society , and started

4672-487: The site have been identified with the Predynastic Zhou . Radiocarbon dating of samples from the site as well as at late Yinxu and early Zhou capitals, using the wiggle matching technique, yielded a date for the conquest between 1050 and 1020 BC. The only date within that range matching all the astronomical data is 20 January 1046 BC. This date had previously been proposed by David Pankenier, who had matched

4745-513: The standard requirement of 95%, which would have produced a much wider range. The texts describing the relevant astronomical phenomena are extremely obscure. For example, the inscription on the Li gui , a key text used in dating the conquest, can be interpreted in several different ways, with one alternative reading leading to the date of 9 January 1044 BC. For the late Shang, the oracle bones provide less detail than Zhou bronzes, routinely recording only

4818-399: The traditional account, especially the early parts, were clearly mythical. In the 1920s, Gu Jiegang and other scholars of the Doubting Antiquity School noted that the earliest figures appeared latest in the literature, and suggested that the traditional history had accreted layers of myth. Noting parallels between the accounts of the Xia and Shang, they suggested that the history of the Xia

4891-413: The very high goals triggered the onset of yet another round of mistakes. In December 1978, the 3rd Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party shifted the work focus of the CCP to modernization. The Session emphasized that the development should follow economic rules and proposed readjustment and reform measures, which indicated that national economic development had entered

4964-475: Was again mainly focused on the drafting of the Plan. It was only in December that year that the fifth meeting of the 5th National People's Congress officially ratified the Plan. The Sixth Five-Year Plan was the first to address government policy support for solar PV panel manufacturing. Policy support for solar panel manufacturing has been a part of every Five-Year Plan since. In late September 1985,

5037-407: Was also addressed. Goals included increasing forest coverage to 18.2%, and the urban green rate to 35%. The total amount of major urban and rural pollutants discharged were targeted for a 10% reduction as compared with 2000, and more measures would be taken to protect and save natural resources. The planning philosophy for the 11th Five-Year Plan was significantly shaped by a mid-term evaluation of

5110-502: Was also in sharp contrast to the rapid industrialization seen in the First Five-Year Plan. The Third Plan was originally due early in 1963, but at that time China's economy was too dislocated, as a result of the failure of the Great Leap Forward and four poor harvests to permit any planned operations. No five-year plan ultimately covered the period 1963–1965. As initially conceived, the Third Five Year Plan emphasized further development in China's already more developed coastal areas and

5183-420: Was invented by the Zhou to support their doctrine of the Mandate of Heaven , by which they justified their conquest of the Shang. Some even doubted the historicity of the Shang dynasty. In 1899, the scholar Wang Yirong examined some curious symbols carved on "dragon bones" purchased from a Chinese pharmacist, and identified them as an early form of Chinese writing. The bones were finally traced back in 1928 to

5256-469: Was studying the oracle bones in the library, putting together pieces of oracle bones like puzzles. At the same time, scholar Guo Ruoyu ( 郭若愚 ) was writing a book on the oracle bones. Chen Mengjia , the oracle bones expert, thought the book needed more work, and recommended Li to assist Guo in his work. Li was thus "borrowed" by the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to become

5329-603: Was then calculated using the statement in the "Against Luxurious Ease" chapter of the Book of Documents that his reign lasted 59 years. According to the traditional histories, Pan Geng , three reigns earlier than Wu Ding, moved the Shang capital to its last site, generally identified with the Yinxu site in Anyang . Different interpretations of the text of the Bamboo Annals give intervals of 275, 273 or 253 years between this event and

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