Leadership Insights | Illustrated Lectures: Sanxingdui Ruins: Evidence to the Inclusiveness of Chinese Civilization

The archaeological findings of the Sanxingdui Ruins are well-known in the world, and show the achievements of Chinese civilization more than 4,000 years ago. They provide more powerful archaeological evidence for the diversity and unity of Chinese civilization and the interaction between the ancient Shu civilization and the Central Plains civilization.

The discovery of the millennia-old Sanxingdui Ruins stunned the world. Located on the south bank of the Yazi River in the northwest of Guanghan in Deyang City, Sichuan Province, the Sanxingdui Ruins demonstrated the development level of the ancient Shu civilization thousands of years ago. The place was the largest capital site with the richest cultural connotation in the Yangtze River basin at that time. 

On July 26, 2023, the new Sanxingdui Museum opened. With an architectural area of 54,400 square meters, it is currently the largest archaeological site museum in southwestern China. The first exhibition area “A Century-long Dream of Archaeology” focuses on the archaeological excavation of the Sanxingdui Ruins over the past century; The second exhibition area “Majestic Capital” fully displays the natural environment, social customs, capital layout, and handicrafts of the ancient Shu kingdom from the perspective of tracing the origins of civilization; The third exhibition area “Heaven, Earth, Humans and Gods” shows the sacrificial activities, belief system and cosmic concepts of the people in the ancient Shu kingdom.

The ceremonial utensils such as jade tablets and jade dagger-axes, as well as musical instruments such as stone chimes and bronze bells, unearthed in the Sanxingdui Ruins, show that the ancient Shu civilization was deeply influenced by metallurgy as well as bronze and jade ritual instruments of the Xia and Shang dynasties in the Central Plains. At the same time, it has maintained its distinctive feature in terms of belief.

Archaeological work can confirm the long history of Chinese civilization and the important contribution it has made to world civilization. On the one hand, the Sanxingdui Ruins demonstrate the achievements of the civilization development of the ancient Shu people more than 4,000 years ago, and change traditional public perception of the ancient Shu culture; On the other hand, it proves that the ancient Shu civilization represented by Sanxingdui is an inseparable part of Chinese civilization, which greatly enriches the connotation of Chinese civilization and vividly mirrors the development path of Chinese civilization featuring unity in diversity.