Shang Dynasty

SHANG DYNASTY

CHRONOLOGICAL LOCATION

The Shang dynasty is the second Chinese dynasty after the Xia. Many calculations say that Shang ruled between 1766 BC and 1122 BC.

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION

Shang dynasty ruled in the yellow river but it is assumed that the kingdom experienced a huge expansion with colonies even in the Yangtse River valley and more.

HISTORICAL BACKROUND – SHANG DYNASTY

Recorded history in China begins with the Shang dynasty. It lasted from the mid-18th to the mid-16th century B.C.E. Shang dynasty also called the Bronze Age this because bronze working became common. Here is a resume about his history, toked from china knowledge web pages.

Shang is among one of the Three Dynasties of antique, it was founded by Tang the Prefect 成湯, and it found its end under the depraved King Zhou 紂. The inscriptions on oxen scapulae or turtle plastrons (jiagu 甲骨) record processes and results of royal divinations made by the Shang kings and their highest shamans (wu 巫). The oracle bone inscriptions are not only witnesses of Shang belief and religion but also of their system of ancestor veneration and their political activities and military campaigns. The political centre of the high and late Shang period was the city (guo 國) of Yin 殷. The Shang at that time dominated smaller cities and states in the middle and lower Yellow River plain (the Central Plain).

The Shang dynasty 商 was a house ruling over a substantial part what is today northern China. From capital near the modern city of Anyang 安陽, Henan, the kings of the Shang exerted power and cultural influence on polities and state lets as far as south of the Yangtse River.

Yin as a political dominant center obtained tributes (gong 貢) from the "many states" (bangguo 邦國) of the Yellow River plain. The Shang kingdom was thus not a sovereign dynasty that dominated over a large part of ancient China but rather one strong state among hundreds of small city / states (wanguo 萬國 "ten thousand states") with earls (bo 伯) as their leaders.

The Shang demonstrated their military superiority over their neighbors and even over states that were a thousand miles away from the royal residence of the Shang. Apart from tributes, the Shang kings required from their vassals taxes in grain and military assistance during warfare.

In the start, the Shang people was either a nomadic people that retained the custom of temporarily changing residence, or that the Shang people was forced to move their dwelling places by the influence of inundations or droughts. It might also be that the Shang had to remove because stronger neighbors forced them to leave their seats.

It was until King Tai Wu 太戊, that it was able to conserve the power of the Shang kings over their neighbors, a success that was by the traditional historians expressed as "the feudal lords turned towards Shang". With Fu Yue's help, the king's army defeated the nomad warriors of the Guifang in modern northern Shaanxi. The western tribes of the Di 氐 and Qiang 羌 declared their vassal ship to the Shang. King Wu Ding is seen as an extremely virtuous ruler who was venerated posthumously as Gaozong 高宗 "High Ancestor".

Yet King Di Xin 帝辛 (better known as King Zhou 紂) was the last ruler of the Shang. King Zhou imprisoned the Viscount or Earl of the West (Xibo 西伯), chieftain of the Zhou people, and only relieved him six years later.

LIFE STYLE

Bronze vessels for drinking were used in ritual ceremonies, while bronze chariots and axes were used in battle. As the metal was associated with royalty, the tombs of Shang kings contained hundreds of small bronze objects, even including hairpins. Some of the bronze objects found contained the first Chinese characters ever written. Very simple in nature, these characters often represented the name of the object's owner.

Another type of artifact characteristic to the Shang dynasty, are the oracle bones with early Chinese writing system. Ancient Chinese priests commonly used tortoise shells and cattle bones to answer questions about the future. Oracle bones also served as a way for the priests to write down the history of the dynasty and the timeline of kings.

The people of the Shang dynasty lived off of the land, and as time passed, settled permanently on farms instead of wandering as nomads. The ancient Shang developed complex forms of irrigation and flood control. The farming of millet, wheat, rice, and barley crops provided the major sources of food, but hunting was not uncommon. Domesticated animals raised by the Shang included pigs, dogs, sheep, oxen, and even silkworms.

The Shang created a social pyramid, with the king at the top, followed by the military nobility, priests, merchants, and farmers. Burials were one way in which the social classes were distinguished. The people who built these tombs were sometimes buried alive with the dead royalty. The lesser classes were buried in pits of varying size based on status, while people of the lowest classes were sometimes even tossed down wells.

CULTURE

          

One example of the art is the fangyi. Fang means rectangular, so it is a rectangular vessel made of bronze. Many archeologists suggest that it was used for rituals and ceremonies. Also in offerings or human sacrifices, that were made to sustain the good fortune. It has a removable lid that helped to store things, but there has been debate about if this vessel was used for food or wine. The decoration consists in highlighted images and geometrical patterns that might represent animals. They were made with ceramic molds.

Another example are the cowrie shells. The cowrie shell has been used as money in many parts of the world, including China, Africa and Arabia. In China, inscriptions which talk of 'gifts of cowries', 'cowries in the treasury', 'seizure of cowries', 'use of cowries' and 'rewards of cowries' are found on bones and on bronze vessels of the Shang Dynasty (sixteenth-eleventh centuries BC). The natural supply of cowrie shells from the coastal regions could not meet the growing demand inland. People began to make imitation cowries out of bone, horn, shell, stone, clay, lead, bronze, gold and silver. However, not all the cowries and imitation cowries were used as money. Cowrie shells were also used as decoration, for example on clothes. Some cowries and imitation cowries have been found in tombs as money for the dead.

RELIGION

Folk religion during the Shang dynasty was polytheistic. But ancestor worship was also very important to the Shang dynasty. For example, it was thought that the success of crops and the health and well-being of people were based on the happiness of dead ancestors. The god worshipped by everyone during the Shang dynasty was Shang Ti (the "lord on high"). He was believed o be he link between gods and men. Religion was also the main inspiration on Shang culture because most of its art focused on rituals.

The main artifact used on the rituals was the taoti; a human- shaped mask that symbolizes the main faces of their ancestors and their Gods.

PRODUCTS

The farming of millet, wheat, rice, and barley crops provided the major sources of food, but hunting was not uncommon. Domesticated animals raised by the Shang included pigs, dogs, sheep, oxen, and even silkworms. During the first part of the foundation of the Shang dynasty the people began to live from the Earth and so they settled permanently on farms instead of wandering as nomads. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Chinese History - Shang Dynasty map and geography (2013) Available on: http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Myth/shang-map.html  [02/09/14 08:39)

Civilization: Shang Dynasty China (2014). Available on: http://www.timemaps.com/civilization/Shang-Dynasty-China  [02/09/14 08:40)

Shang Dynasty - China's First Recorded History, Hall Association in Philadelphia, (2008). Available on: http://www.ushistory.org/civ/9b.asp

British Museum, consulted 25 – 08 – 2014 in: http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/asia/b/bronze_zun_ritual_wine_vessel.aspx