About this place

Museum of Luoyang Eastern Zhou Royal Horse and Chariot Pits is worth a visit. The musuem is built over the sacrificial pit area for the emperors in Eastern Zhou Dynasty (770BC – 256BC) with its capital at the site of the present day Luoyang. The burial of the royal horse and chariots here in Luoyang is earlier than that of terra cotta warriors during Qin Dynasty (221–206 B.C.) in Xian.

The city of Luoyang went through thirteen dynasties and 105 emperors starting Xia Dynasty (2070BC-1600BC), Shang Dynasty (1600BC-1046BC), Eastern Zhou Dynasty(770BC-256BC), Beiwei Dynasty (493AD-534AD), Sui Dynasty (605AD-619AD) and more with a history of over 4,000 years! It should be deifinitely included in your Luoyang tour program.

The museum’s former English name is quite long while it is colloquially called “Tianzi Jialiu Museum”. “Tianzi” means emperors while “Jialiu” means their chariots driven by 6 horses. The dicovery of the Tianzi Jialiu Site has great impact on the Chinese archaeology and history. It is a proof that in the Zhou Dynasty, the emperors had 6 horses to drive their chariots; the vassals 5 horses; the ministers 4 horses; scholar-bureaucrats 3 horses; scholar-officials 2 horses and Common People 1 horse, a kind of strict etiquette formed in Zhou Dynasty, which had been only recorded in ancient books before it was discoved underground in 2002. So the number of the horses indicated the rank and identity of the nobles.