Remembering a bronze age queen

The ongoing exhibition at the Capital Museum features a replica of Fu Hao's tomb, and virtual-reality glasses allow visitors to see facades of the Shang palaces. [Photo provided to China Daily]

On International Women's Day, Fu Hao, a female legend from 3,000-odd years ago, was reintroduced to the public in the exhibition hall of Beijing's Capital Museum. The exhibition has 441 cultural relics on display, ranging from bronzeware and jade objects to pottery and oracle bones. Wang Kaihao reports.

She is a warrior. She is a queen.

If the Shang Dynasty (c. 16th-11th century BC) is the zenith of the Bronze Age in China, she is probably its most shining example.

On International Women's Day, which fell on March 8, Fu Hao (Hao is the surname and Fu means a woman in Chinese), a female legend from 3,000-odd years ago was reintroduced to the public in the exhibition hall of Beijing's Capital Museum.

The exhibition, Queen, Mother, General: 40th Anniversary of Excavating the Shang Tomb of Fu Hao, has 441 cultural relics on display, ranging from bronzeware and jade objects to pottery and oracle bones－telling her story in a unique way.

Since the discovery of Fu Hao's tomb in Anyang, Henan province, in 1976, the site has been one of the longest continuously studied sites in China. It is also the only intact Shang rulers' family tomb found, and 1,928 funerary objects have been unearthed in the past few decades. Consequently, the site is generally considered as a milestone in the country's history of archaeology.

Black and red were the colors adored by rulers in the Shang Dynasty, and they set the tone for the museum journey back in time. Cloth curtains and "pearl" drapery give the display a certain feminine charm.