From the early Zhou Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty, there were two capitals. Later, the "DuDu Fu" and "DuDu Fu" were deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, namely Luoyang in the east and Chang 'an in the west. The northern and southern Beijing in Ming Dynasty were Yingtianfu in Nanjing and Shuntianfu in Beijing.

Traditional historiography has only four ancient capitals in China, Xi, Nanjing, Luoyang and Beijing. In the 1920s, academic circles called it "the five ancient capitals of China", namely Xi, Nanjing, Luoyang, Beijing and Kaifeng.

In 1930s, Hangzhou was added as "six ancient capitals", but it was not accepted by the public. 1983, in the book Six Ancient Capitals of China, Chen Qiaoyi listed Hangzhou as a great ancient capital. Since then, six ancient capitals have been accepted by the public: Xi, Nanjing, Beijing, Luoyang, Kaifeng and Hangzhou.

1982, Tan Qixiang published the article "Seven Capitals in the History of China", arguing that "in the history of China for thousands of years, there are many cities that are the capitals of unified political power or regional political power, the most important of which are Chang 'an, Luoyang, Ye, Kaifeng, Nanjing, Hangzhou and Beijing"; These seven capitals can be divided into three categories: Chang 'an, Luoyang and Beijing have long been the capitals of the unified regime for several successive dynasties; Kaifeng and Nanjing are the temporary capitals of the unified regime; Ye and Hangzhou are just the capitals of a larger regional regime. "The' seven capitals' proposed by Tan Qixiang here is another expression of the' seven ancient capitals' later.

1988, the geographer Tan Qixiang proposed Anyang as the ancient capital, and Anyang was recognized as the seventh ancient capital, so there were seven ancient capitals: Xi 'an, Nanjing, Beijing, Luoyang, Kaifeng, Hangzhou and Anyang.

From June 5438 to October 2004 10, China Ancient Capital Society recognized Zhengzhou as the eighth ancient capital, so there were eight ancient capitals: Xi 'an, Nanjing, Beijing, Luoyang, Kaifeng, Hangzhou, Anyang and Zhengzhou.