Capital Museum in Beijing traces the city's ancient origins through 180 rare relics

The Capital Museum in Beijing, the city's leading institution dedicated to its history and archaeology, is presenting an exhibition devoted to the earliest chapters of the capital's past. Titled "Taibao Yongyan" (太保墉燕), meaning roughly "the Grand Protector builds the walls of Yan," the show refers to a foundational episode in which a high-ranking official of the Western Zhou dynasty is said to have overseen the construction of the ramparts of the ancient state of Yan, a distant forerunner of present-day Beijing.

The exhibition gathers close to 180 archaeological objects, most of them unearthed at the Liulihe site in Beijing's southwestern Fangshan district, widely regarded as the cradle of the Yan capital under the Western Zhou dynasty roughly three thousand years ago. According to the Chinese cultural outlet Artron (雅昌艺术网), several of these artifacts, drawn from scattered collections, are being shown together for the first time.

The state of Yan, established in the early Western Zhou period around the 11th century BCE, holds a central place in Chinese historiography as one of the earliest archaeological markers of organized urban settlement in the Beijing region. Decades of excavation at Liulihe have revealed fortification remains, aristocratic tombs and ritual bronze vessels, allowing archaeologists to piece together the outline of this founding city.

By juxtaposing these remains with the historical narrative surrounding the "Grand Protector," a title held by senior Zhou officials entrusted with state missions, the exhibition offers a reading that bridges ancient textual sources and recent archaeological findings. It forms part of a broader series of programs at the Capital Museum exploring Beijing's long history as a city that, over millennia, served as the seat of several successive capitals before becoming the center of imperial, and later contemporary, power.

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Written by the ADM desk based on 雅昌艺术网. Read the original article for the full story.