L20 The Shang Dynasty

L20 The Shang Dynasty

by Neal Ansani

​Important Vocabulary

• ​ancestor worship

• ​Anyang

• ​bronze

• ​clan

• ​oracle bone

• ​Shang Dynasty

Introduction

​In ancient times, most of China's early farmers settled on the North China Plain, near the Huang He (Yellow River). The Shang (shung) dynasty was one of China's earliest dynasties. This dynasty ruled the area centered in the Huang He valley.

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Multiple clans, or extended families, controlled different sections of ancient China. Rival clans frequently fought each other. Sometimes, one clan became powerful enough to rule all of ancient China and begin a dynasty. The Shang was one example of such clans. Although the dates are debated, some scholars suggest the Shang dynasty ruled from 1750 to 1040 B.C.E.

Poll

Do you think the Shang family becoming a dynasty is an example of change or continuity?

• Change

• Continuity

​1. A Shang Capital City

In 1928, archaeologists began excavating the ruins at Anyang. These ruins were the remains of one of the royal cities of the Shang dynasty. The city included a palace, a temple, and houses. There were also workshops for artisans who created objects made of metals, pottery, stone, and jade.

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The king's palace sat on a platform. The palace was built of mud plastered walls held up by wooden posts. Beneath its foundations, archaeologists found human bones. The bones suggest that the Shang performed human sacrifices when they constructed a new royal house.​

​Human sacrifices were also part of Shang burials. While excavating at Anyang, archaeologists found at least nine royal tombs. Each tomb had a large pit with ramps leading down to it from the north and south. When a king was buried, slaves, servants, and animals were led down the ramps into the pit. There, they were sacrificed as part of the Shang belief that the king must continue to be served in the afterlife.

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​This belief in life after death is likely the reason that metal vessels and containers of food were also buried with or near Shang kings. The treasures found in royal tombs include many weapons, carved jade ornaments, bone carvings, pieces of pottery, stone sculptures, and even chariots.

Multiple Choice

Do the Shang Dynasty's beliefs about death show they value change or continuity?

• change

• continuity

​2. Shang Government

​The Shang government was led by a powerful king. To extend his power, a king established smaller kingdoms. They were led by his younger brothers and nephews. When a king died, his power was often saved. It passed to a younger brother or son.

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​Shang kings depended on strong armies to maintain their rule. They needed armies to defend and expand their kingdoms. The kings took part in almost constant warfare with their enemies. They fought to keep other clans under control.

Multiple Choice

Is the Shang Dynasty's method of staying in power an example of change or continuity?

• change

• continuity

​The king’s armies were especially powerful. Shang nobles had weapons made of bronze. The Shang were among the first civilizations in the world to discover how to make bronze.

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​Shang armies were made up of large numbers of foot soldiers. There were also archers, men mounted on horses and elephants, and fighters in chariots. The chariots were two-wheeled carts drawn by horses. Three soldiers rode in each chariot. The driver stood in the middle. A spear carrier stood to his left and an archer to his right.

Multiple Choice

Is the Shang Dynasty's use of military technology an example of change or continuity?

• change

• continuity

​3. Shang Social Classes

​Shang society can be divided into six social classes. The king and his relatives were in the highest class.

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After the ruling family, the nobles made up the highest-ranking social class. Nobles fought in the king's armies and supplied them with weapons, foot soldiers, and chariots. In exchange for their military help, the king was unlikely to interfere with the nobles' control over the land.

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​The king often gave nobles symbols of power, such as jade discs. The discs might be decorated with a “lucky” creature such as a dragon or tiger. Nobles often mounted the discs on posts in their homes.

​The artisans were a small but talented social class that included potters, stonemasons, and workers crafting items of bronze and jade. These skilled workers had lower status than nobles but higher status than farmers. Artisans skilled in bronze were especially valued because they made the weapons used by Shang warriors. They also made and decorated containers for the king and his nobles to use in religious ceremonies, or simply as symbols of their wealth.

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​Like artisans, those who were traders ranked below nobles but above farmers in Shang society. During the Shang dynasty, people mostly exchanged goods. The Shang also used cowrie shells, a type of seashell, as money. The shells were valuable because they came from far away. The Shang people had to trade with neighboring regions to get them.

​Farmers made up the largest social class in Shang society. They worked small plots of land, growing millet, wheat, barley, rice, fruit, vegetables, and nuts. They did not own the land they farmed since it was under the control of either the king or the nobles. Farmers gave most of their harvest to the nobles, who sent a portion to the king. Farmers could keep only enough food to feed themselves and their families.

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​Even after the Chinese became highly skilled at making bronze and iron weapons, many farmers continued to use simple tools made of wood and stone. Besides growing crops, farmers learned to raise cattle. They may also have raised pigs and chickens.

​At the very bottom of Shang society were slaves, many of whom were prisoners of war. They spent their lives building tombs and palaces. When their masters died, the slaves were sometimes sacrificed, in keeping with the Shang belief that slaves should continue to serve their masters in the afterlife.

Poll

Does the Shang Dynasty's social class system seem like a change or a continuation of other social class systems we have seen (like in Egypt, the Maya, India, etc.)

• big change

• small change

• continuation

​4. Shang Religion

​Shang religion centered on ancestor worship. The treasures buried in kings' tombs show that the Shang believed in a life after death. They also believed that dead ancestors had the power to help or harm the living. For this reason, the Shang honored their ancestors. As signs of respect, worshippers gave offerings of food, and sometimes made human sacrifices.

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​The Shang believed that their king's relationship to ancestral spirits had special significance. The king inherited the right to rule from his ancestors. And among the king's responsibilities was a duty to follow the wishes of his ancestors.

Multiple Choice

Is the Shang Dynasty's belief that ancestors can help or hurt you an example of change or continuity?

• change

• continuity

​5. Shang Writing

​In Shang writing, as in modern Chinese, characters stand for words rather than sounds. Early Chinese writing contained only pictographs, images that stand for objects. By the Shang dynasty period, people were also using logographs, characters that stand for words. For example, the character for “good” is a combination of the characters for “woman” and “child.”

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Having a written language helped unify the Chinese people. Although spoken language varied from place to place, people of the upper classes used the same written language.

Multiple Choice

Is the Shang Dynasty's development of a writing system an example of change or continuity?

• change

• continuity

​6. Shang Art

​Shang artists showed great skill in working with bronze. Shang artisans made beautiful vessels and other objects. Some bronze vessels had geometric designs and pictures of mythical creatures. The most common picture was an animal mask, later known as a taotie. It might have the horns of an ox, the ears of an elephant, the talons of a bird, the eye of a man, or the crest of a dragon. Some scholars say that these masks were symbols of all the beings in the world.

​7. Shang Technology

​Working with bronze was an important technology for the Shang. Artisans used bronze to make many tools of war, including arrowheads, spearheads, ax heads, and helmets. The bronze-making skill of the Shang is one of the reasons they were able to remain in power for more than five hundred years.

Poll

Would you argue that using bronze for everything from art to weapons, but not for farming tools, represents an example of change or continuity?

• change

• continuity

​8. The End of the Shang Dynasty

​The Shang excelled in war, enabling the ruling classes to achieve great wealth. However, in time, these very strengths helped to bring about the end of the dynasty. Constant warfare eventually weakened the military power of the Shang.

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​The Shang had a system of money, using valuable cowrie shells that they received as part of their trading with neighbors. The Shang king and his nobles spent huge amounts of money on their palaces, furnishings, clothing, and even their tombs. Over time, this lavish spending may have weakened the economy.

​A later king would say that the final blow was the corruption of the last Shang king. Rather than look after his people, he spent all his time on recreational activities like hunting, but no one knows whether this report was true.

​​

​Around 1045 B.C.E., a frontier state called Zhou (joh) rose up against the dynasty. Zhou armies under King Wu caught the Shang unaware, defeating and overthrowing them. One story says that, as Zhou rebels stormed his capital city, the last Shang king ran from the battlefield, put on all his jewelry, and threw himself into the flames of a fire.

Multiple Choice

Does the end of the Shang Dynasty represent an example of change or continuity in Chinese history?

• change

• continuity

Multiple Select

Who benefited from the Shang king's decision to spend a ton of money on wars, fancy houses, and stuff?

• Rich individuals (i.e. the king and the nobles)

• Poor individuals (i.e. commoners, soldiers, slaves)

• businesses (aka the artisans, traders, and farmers)

• Chinese society as a whole