Yangcheng (historical city)

Yangcheng may be located at the Wangchenggang (王城岗) site in Henan. In 1977, An Jinhuai (安金槐)^[3] excavated a small east-west oriented walled city at Wangchenggang;^[4] it is dated to the second period of the Longshan era, or approaching the start of the Xia.^[5] In 2002–2005, a larger walled city was discovered^[4] and radiocarbon dated as the earliest and largest Xia-period site at Wangchenggang.^[5]

An and Sun Zuoyun (孙作云) believed the small city to be Yangcheng,^[3] and this interpretation remained popular through the rest of the 20th century.^[1][2] One criticism was that the city was too small to be a capital of a major state.^[3]

Since its discovery, the larger city has been associated with Yangcheng. The smaller city has been attributed to Gun, Yu's predecessor,^[6][1] although Liu and Chen note that the 100 year difference between the two cities makes this unlikely.^[1]