Chinese History - Shang Dynasty basic history ()

Shang Dynasty 商代 (17th to 11th cent. BC)		period before (Prehistory) next period (Zhou)
Shang Dynasty intro		Map and Geography
	Following traditional historiography, the Shang Dynasty is said to have been a ruling family with a mighty center that dominated over the whole oecumene (the settled part of the world) that reached the Yellow Sea to the borders of the steppe. Archeological findings instead show evidence that the core of the Shang's homeland in Anyang 安陽 was not more than one part of a multi-centered world whose respective parts had each a different culture and different styles of art and living. The term Yin 殷, that is sometimes used as a synonym for the Shang Dynasty, especially after it had moved to Anyang, seems only to have been a Zhou Dynasty term for the Shang for we can not find the name Yin on the oracle bone (jiagu 甲骨) inscriptions. Even the multiple movings of the capital of which the Han Dynasty historiographer Sima Qian 司馬遷 and the Bamboo Annals (Zhushu Jinian 竹書紀年) tell us, can not be proved archeologically. Instead, we find the oldest traces of "Shang culture" south of the Yellow River, in Erlitou near Luoyang. The Shang society was already divided into labour groups, Marxist historians say, slaves (nuli 奴隸), but the slaves seemed to be recruited as war prisoners rather than the own population. The Shang kings had a specified clan system in which each prince and cousin had a special title with an appropriate domain. In the more distant areas Anyang, the Shang kings had officials without kinship to the ruler and therefore liked to be more independent the center. The areas of the "Marquis" (hou 侯) and "Viscount" (bo 伯) were culturally a part of the Shang period but not in any case political dependent of Anyang. The peoples living far the capital, later called "barbarians", and even enemies were called fang 方. In the center, the miners, casters, artisans, dog keepers and so on were divided by the hundreds and had each officers with special duties. Even recording the divinations required a simple bureaucracy, which can show the beginning of the traditional Chinese state. The climate in Shang times was warmer than today. The main crop of North China was - and still is - millet (he 禾, shu 黍, and gaoliang 高; rice mi 米 or fan 飯 grows only in the Yangtse area and south, in Sichuan and the Huai River plain, the most northern rice area is the Liao River basin in the northeast), and the divining king took care of the fields of the whole area. He also took care of creating new arable land and generating enough cattle. The upper class engaged in hunting as a sport. The findings in Shang tombs show how far reaching trade between the Chinese cultural centers has been. But the Anyang kings not only received gifts, but also many tributes in form of cattle, divination shells and slaves. The stratified society needed indeed much labor, and a great part of it was done by conscripts and dependent people (slaves) during the longest part of Chinese history. The conscripts did not only work for temple and tomb building, farming and producing but also served as soldiers. The Shang armies included already specified weapon types like cavallery and archery. During their expansion, the Shang population repelled or subdued neighboring peoples. The multi-centered and multi-cultural world of archaic China the archeology shows us is in no way reflected in the literary tradition of the Zhou Dynasty. The Zhou claimed to be the heavenly approved, morally outraging successor of the depraved but originally equally heaven-sanctified Shang Dynasty, universal and prestigious ruler of the world. To sanctify themselves, the Zhou invented the cyclical image of universal worldly rule by one dynasty over the whole oecumene. Therefore, their historiography let the Shang Dynasty begin with the sage ruler Tang and end with the drunken tyrant Dixin (also called Zhou, but another character than the dynasty) whereas the forerunner of the Shang, the Xia Dynasty, is said to have started with the wise king Yu the Great and to have ended with tyrant Jie. Although many facets in the life of the Shang are very strange to later people, they mark the beginning of the long-tradition Chinese state. A crucial heritage to Chinese culture and thinking is the ancestor veneration that can already be found in the veneration of the Shang king's ancestors. Go back to the Shang Dynasty introduction page and learn more about Shang Dynasty economy, arts, literature, government...

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Chinese History - Shang Dynasty basic history

Shang Dynasty 商代 (17th to 11th cent. BC)