Fu Hao

A consort of the late Shang king, Wu-ting, the fourth Shang ruler of Anyang. Fu Hao is mentioned in many oracle bone texts and on bronze ritual vessels. Her tomb, discovered at Anyang Xiaotun in 1976, is the only royal tomb of the Shang period found intact and the only one whose occupant could be identified (by the 500 bronze vessels). The tomb was a small pit without entrance ramps, but its furnishings were very rich. Besides the bronze ritual vessels, 200 bronze weapons and tools, 600 jades and stone carvings, 500 objects of carved bone and ivory, 4 bronze mirrors, 7000 cowrie shells (used as money), and 16 sacrificial victims were revealed. The discovery has an important bearing on the chronology of Shang art and the periodization of oracle bone texts.

[Fu Hao]. A consort of Wu Ding, the fourth Shang king to rule at Anyang. Fu Hao is mentioned in many oracle bone texts. Her tomb, discovered at Anyang Xiaotun in 1976, is the only royal tomb of the Shang period found intact and the only one whose occupant could be identified: many bronzes from the tomb are inscribed with the name Fu Hao. The tomb was a small pit without entrance ramps, 8 metres deep and 5.6 by 4 metres on the sides, a size modest by comparison with the large cruciform royal tombs at Anyang (see shaft tombs, China). Its furnishings, however, were astonishingly rich, including more than 200 bronze ritual vessels, 200 bronze weapons and tools, 600 jades and stone carvings, 500 objects of carved bone and ivory, 4 bronze mirrors, 7000 cowrie shells (used as money), and 16 sacrificial victims. The discovery has an important bearing on the chronology of Shang art and the periodization of oracle bone texts.