Shang or Chang Dynasty (1766-1122 BC) Reigned in China from 1770 to 1050 BC . The Shang State extended across the Huang He plain and had as its centre the north-eastern region of Henan , where small cities already existed. They subsequently conquered and colonised new territories in the south, and created some principalities in the Huang He and Wei basins. They shaped a civilisation in which the first cities developed at the same time as the bronze craft. The revolts that occurred in the mid- 11th century BC put an end to the dynasty.
History
In China, the first civilizations arose around 3200 BCE on the banks of the major rivers: the Huang He (Yellow), the Chang Jiang (Yangtze), and the Xi Jiang . Like the peoples of Sumer , Egypt , and the Indus Valley, Chinese farmers depended on their country’s rivers to transport goods and to irrigate their crops: rice paddies needed the spring floods. But the Chinese also faced two dangers: excessive flooding and devastating raids by tribes from the north and west.
As was the case in Egypt, Mesopotamia , and the cities of the Indus Valley , there is one river at the beginning of Chinese civilization: the mighty and unpredictable Yellow River. By 4000 BCE, people began to cultivate crops, first millet and then rice, along the northernmost of China ‘s major rivers . Chinese legends attribute the political origins of the nation to certain semi-mythical individuals, including a Yellow Emperor (ca. 2700 BCE), three wise kings (ca. 2350 BCE), and an Hsia dynasty that lasted until 1776 BCE according to ancient accounts.
The earliest settlements in China date back to 3200 BCE, and all grew up along the banks of the region’s three great rivers: the Huang He, the Chang Jiang and the Xi Jiang; and like the civilizations of Sumer, Egypt and the Indus Valley, Chinese farmers took advantage of the rivers’ fertile banks for cultivation and transport (the annual floods provided the nutrients needed for rice and other crops).
The first small towns appeared around 3000 BC, around the Huang He (Yellow River) during the Longshan period . According to tradition, Huangdi, the Yellow Emperor, was the first emperor of China around 2700 BC. However, the first dynasty of which we have more concrete news (although the sources are legendary) is the Xia , which ruled for four centuries from 2,200 BC.
Development
The Xia dynasty was succeeded by the Shang dynasty in 1766 BC, and it can be said that, although it was the second dynasty, it was the first dynasty for which there is solid evidence of its existence. Its rulers controlled a large part of northern China, developing an important court life while also having to deal with the continuous attempts of invasion by neighbouring peoples. Even so, the emperors continued to expand their domains and by 1300 BC they had already doubled the territories under their control.
The Shang ruled for 600 years until they were replaced by the Zhou Dynasty in 1122 BC after the last King Yin was defeated in a battle against the people.
The historical reality of the Shang dynasty is unanimously accepted, since it is corroborated by countless material and documentary testimonies.
This dynasty, which was founded in the 16th century BC and lasted for almost six centuries, moved its capital several times until it settled in Yin , now Anyang (Henan province). It must be said that during this period, with the formation of a state and the institutionalization of private property, China entered fully into its process of civilization.
Archaeological finds—mostly bronze objects and oracular inscriptions on animal bones and tortoise shells—show that Chinese civilization at that time had reached a high level of development.
The divinatory inscriptions were discovered by pure chance. One day in the early 20th century , a scholar from Beijing went to a traditional medicine pharmacy and bought several fragments of mammal bones and tortoise shells. He immediately noticed that they were engraved with ancient characters. When he investigated the origin of the bones and shells, he discovered that some farmers from Xiaotun (a village located northwest of Anyang) had collected them in the countryside and sold them to the pharmacy. Further investigation confirmed that the characters engraved on the bones and shells belonged to the Shang Dynasty and that the city of Yin, where the Shang Dynasty established its capital, was located in the vicinity of Xiaotun village.
In what turned out to be the most important archaeological site discovered in China in the twentieth century , a large number of valuable objects were unearthed, mostly oracular inscriptions and bronzes. Before being used in divinatory rites, mammalian shoulder blades and tortoise shells were prepared by first removing the remains of flesh and blood, and then polishing them. Several holes were then drilled into them in a certain order, and the shaman would inscribe his name, the date and the question. The bone or shell was then heated until it cracked along the line marked by the holes. In these cracks, the shaman was able to read “the answer of the gods.” If the omen came true, the bone or shell was preserved as an official record.
The more than 160,000 bone and shell fragments discovered at Yin—some of them well preserved—contain some 4,000 different characters. Researchers have studied about 3,000 of them, but have only agreed on the meaning of about 1,000. Of the rest, some are indecipherable and others are interpreted by scholars in very different ways. All in all, the 1,000 deciphered characters are enough to provide a fairly thorough understanding of the politics, economy, and culture of the Shang Dynasty.
The bronze metallurgy of this dynasty was the most advanced in the world. Among the thousands of bronze objects unearthed at Yin, the most outstanding is the rectangular ding known as Simuwu, a two-handled, four-legged cauldron weighing 875 kilograms and measuring 110 centimeters long, 78 centimeters wide and 133 centimeters high.
Culture
The first cities in China appeared in the north around 3000 BCE , during the Longshan period, around the Huang He (Yellow River). According to tradition, Huangdi , the Yellow Emperor, was the first emperor around 2700 BCE . The first dynasty was the Xia , which ruled for four centuries from 2200 BCE. Its founder, Yu, is believed to have “tamed” the rivers by building dikes to stop flooding and irrigation canals.
Since historians have no proof whether the Yellow Emperor, the Three Wise Kings, or the Hsia Dynasty were all legends or not, they regard the later Shang Dynasty, also called Yin, as the first dynasty (with strong evidence) to unite the warring, rival city-states along the Yellow River in the 16th century B.C.E. Some historians, however, caution that the Shang Dynasty itself used to be regarded as a legend as well, until archaeologists found oracle bones, bones on which Shang scribes recorded historical records of the dynasty, in the 1920s . Since this evidence proved the Shang Dynasty was real, cautious historians believe that archaeologists will one day prove the existence of the earlier dynasties.
The Shang Dynasty ruled northern China for more than six centuries. They lived in a chain of cities along the Huang He and had their capital at Anyang , a city with many palaces and temples, built mostly of carved wood. The Zhou Dynasty replaced the Shang in 1122 BC.
The Shang people grew millet, wheat and rice, and also mulberry trees to feed silkworms, which produced splendid cloth. They raised sheep, pigs, cattle, dogs and chickens, and hunted deer and wild boar. The Shang used horses to pull ploughs, carts and wagons. At first they used cowrie shells as currency, and later they moved on to bronze. They were very skilled in bronze and jade work, and made elaborate religious and everyday objects.
Also under the rule of the Shang, who established their capital at Anyang (beginning in 1300 BCE ), the early Chinese mapped the sky with the movements of the Sun and stars to predict the coming of the seasons, kept astronomical records to rival those of the Egyptians, and devised an excellent 12-month calendar.
Chinese writing
Around 1600 BCE , the Shang developed the earliest forms of Chinese calligraphy: a pictorial script in which each letter represented a word. The Chinese writing we know today evolved from Shang script. The Shang worshipped their ancestors, whom they regarded as wise guides in their lives, and consulted oracles when making decisions.
Bronze is a mixture of copper and tin that, when polished, resembles gold. The Shang prospered from their work with this metal, a very hard material that had many uses in tools, household items and weapons. Bronze was also used to make ornaments and religious or artistic items. It was cast in hard molds where ornaments or motifs of any kind were carved. The use of bronze represented an immense technological advance throughout the world.
The Shang Dynasty, also known as the Yin Dynasty, is the second dynasty in the history of China, although it is the first for which there is historical evidence of its existence.
