Journey through the birth of dynastic China

Rare relics reveal how kingdoms united distant communities with ritual and belief, Bai Shuhao and Zhou Lihua report in Wuhan, Hubei.

On an ordinary day more than 3,000 years ago, a diviner posed a question to the gods: Would it not rain? The answer came in the cracks of a turtle shell. At the time, the land that is now China was warmer and wetter than it is today, rich with rainfall and fertile soil. But the question inscribed on that oracle bone — No rain? — betrayed a deeper anxiety.

For the rulers of the Shang Dynasty (c. 16th century-11th century BC), agriculture was the ground on which the kingdom stood. Drought and flood alike could bring famine, unrest and even the collapse of the state.

That fragment of divination, excavated centuries later, now sits inside a glass case at the Panlongcheng site in Wuhan, Hubei province, anchoring one of China's most compelling archaeological exhibitions this year.

Opened for the country's annual Cultural and Natural Heritage Day, Tracing Xia and Shang, an exhibition at the Panlongcheng Relic Museum, gathers 163 artifacts from 35 museums and archaeological institutions across China.