Recently, Wang Wei, deputy director of the Institute of Archaeology, made a guest visit to CCTV's "Tibet in the World" program "History of Ancient Carriage in China" to explain the evolution of the ancient carriage system in China and its role in history.
Wang Wei said that it is still a mystery when China began to use cars in ancient times. In the pre-Qin literature such as Zuo Zhuan and Mozi, it is said that "Xizhong was the coachman" and Xizhong was the coachman of Xia Dynasty. However, no archaeological evidence of the use of cars in the Xia Dynasty was found. In the early Shang Dynasty, ruts were found on the pavement of Yanshi Capital, Henan Province, indicating that cars had been used at that time. However, the distance between the two wheels of this rut is only about 1.2m, which is much narrower than the 2.22.4m track of the carriage in the late Shang Dynasty. So it is estimated that it may not be the rut left by the carriage. Ancient documents once recorded that Wang Hai, the ancestor of merchants, "worked as a cow". Therefore, merchants in the early Shang Dynasty may have used ox carts. It is not excluded that the ruts found in Yanshi Mall were left by ox carts or rickshaws. Up to now, the earliest physical car discovered in China is a carriage unearthed from Yin Ruins in Anyang, Henan Province in the late Shang Dynasty (about 3300-3050 years ago), and dozens of cars have been discovered so far. Most of these wagons are buried beside the tombs of nobles. Generally,12 cars are buried in a chariot pit. Most carriages have bronze chariots and horses, and some carriages are also equipped with weapons and instruments to control them. Some cars have drivers buried next to them. It can be seen that the carriages in the late Shang Dynasty were mainly used for car wars and aristocratic means of transportation.
The Western Zhou Dynasty was an important period for the development of China's ancient ritual system. Many ancient systems in China appeared in the Western Zhou Dynasty. The system of chariots and horses is no exception. At that time, in addition to continuing to be used in combat, the carriage was also regarded as the embodiment of rank identity. According to "Zhou Li", the structure of the car, the number of horses, the shape of the car and horses, and the decoration of the car are strictly different according to their status. Cars and horses can often be found next to the tombs of nobles in the Zhou Dynasty, and the number of cars and horses buried in the pit matches the size and funerary objects of the tombs of nobles next to them. Up to now, there are more than ten cars buried in the pit of horses and chariots in the Western Zhou Dynasty. Last year, there were as many as 33 cars in the chariot pit next to the Eastern Zhou Tomb at Jiuliandun 1 in Zaoyang, Hubei Province. In addition, during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the number of chariots also became one of the symbols to measure the military strength of various countries, so it was called "a country with thousands of riders" and "a country with thousands of riders".
In the late Warring States period, cavalry gradually replaced chariots as the main means of combat in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. After the Qin and Han dynasties, the structure of the car changed significantly, from a single-wheeled car driven by two horses to a two-wheeled car driven by one horse. Cars are mainly used as travel tools, not walking and carrying goods. In the tombs of princes in the Han Dynasty, you can see cars buried with them. Until modern times, the structure and use of carriages have not changed much.