Fu Hao

The grave

Fù Hǎo ( Chinese 婦好 / 妇好 ; post name: Mǔ Xīn , 母辛 ) was one of the wives of King Wu Ding (approx. 1325 to 1266 BC) of the Shang Dynasty of China .

The oracle bones from Yinxu are known to act as military leaders and allegedly led 13,000 soldiers against the Jiang tribe and other peoples. Fu Hao is said to have worked in parallel as an important priestess and presented the offerings to heaven, the ancestors and the holy springs, etc. King Wu Ding greatly favored her and enfeoffed her with goods. She also appears to have run state affairs for her husband, with Wu Ding expressing concern for her health several times. During her pregnancy, Wu Ding prophesied that her embryo was a boy. She was the mother of Prince Jie and died before the death of her husband Wu Ding.

Fu Hao's tomb

In 1976, archaeologists discovered the village Xiaotun (小屯村) of the community Xijiao (西郊乡) of the municipality Yindu (殷都区) of the city of Anyang her ungeplündertes grave. The grave was only relatively small (5.6 × 4 m and 8 m deep), but contained an enormous amount of grave goods. There were 200 bronze ritual vessels, 200 bronze weapons, around 600 small figures made of jade and other materials, 490 hairpins made of bone, vessels made of ivory with inlays, 7000 cowrie shells , which then served as money , 23 bronze bells, 20 opal beads and other objects, including four mirrors that are the earliest Chinese mirrors known to date. 16 people and 6 dogs were sacrificed for the funeral and were found in the tomb. Fu Hao was buried in a lacquered wooden coffin, which in turn was in a wooden box. A grave temple must have once stood above the grave, but only stone panels were left.

literature

Helmut Brinker and Roger Goepper : Art treasures from China. Zurich 1980, pp. 29–31

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Fu Hao
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Fù Hǎo; 婦好 (traditional Chinese); 妇好 (simplified Chinese); Mǔ Xīn (post name); 母辛 (Postum name, Chinese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Wife of the Chinese King Wu Ding of the Shang Dynasty
DATE OF BIRTH	14th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH	13th century BC Chr.