The red squares signify the sites of the Shang residences according to traditional historiography: Bo 亳 (Caoxian 曹縣/Shandong), Ao 隞 or 囂 (Yingyang 滎陽/Henan), Xiang 相 (Neihuang 內黃/Henan), Geng 邢 or 耿 (Xingtai 邢台/Hebei or Wenxian 溫縣/Henan), Bi 庇 (Yuncheng 鄆城/Shandong), Yan 奄 (Qufu 曲阜/Shandong), Yin 殷 or called Beimeng 北蒙 (Anyang 安陽/Henan), Mo 沬 or Chaoge 朝歌 (Qixian 淇縣/Henan) Yin, the last traditional residence, is an archeological site ("ruins of Yin", Yinxu 殷墟) that has been exploited extensively since the 1920es. Until know, it is also the only place where archeologists discovered readable texts written with a fully developed script. All other placenames are reconstructed from these texts. It was especially the nomad peoples in the northwest (Quanrong 犬戎, Guifang 鬼方, Tufang 土方, Gongfang {工/口}方) and the ethnically different peoples in the Huai River 淮河 area (Yifang 夷方) that almost annually challenged the dominance of the city states of the Central Plain 中原 along the middle and lower course of the Yellow River 黃河. The 15th century was a time of highest cultural unity, and the influence of cities like Erligang 二里岡 (Ao 隞?; near modern Zhengzhou 鄭州/Henan) extended south the the Yangtse River 長江 and beyond. Later, the state of Yin was less dominant, and the states of the 13th and 12th century show much more cultural diversity. Once allies of Yin, the Zhou 周 later became enemies (then called Zhoufang 周方) and conquered the Yellow River Plain from the west, founding the Zhou Dynasty 周.

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