Concerning Xia and Shang sites, there has long been controversy in academic circles. It involves the nature of the Erlitou site and the Shang city-sites in Zhengzhou and Yanshi, and especially the relationship between the two Shang cities. Debates have also been provoked on the questions of which of the two cities can be taken as the demarcation line between the Xia and Shang and where the Shang Tang capital of Bo was located. Based on the already obtained excavation and research achievements, the present paper elaborates a comparative study of the two Shang cities in the aspects of their rise and decline courses, architectural layout, cultural features and mutual relationship. It concludes that the Shang city in Yanshi, being smaller on scale and earlier in date, must have been the center in the region of the early Shang culture. Its construction can be taken to be the demarcation line between the Xia and Shang, and it was just the Shang Tang capital of Bo.
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