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Shang China (about 1600–1046 B.C.E.)

East Asian Civilization · Unit 1 · Civilization Packet

1. At a glance

Why the Shang matter: the Shang were China's first fully-documented civilization. "Documented" means they left written records of their own, and we can still read them today.

2. Before the Shang: Erlitou and the Xia

• Erlitou is a site in the Huang He valley, almost 4,000 years old. Archaeologists found palaces, bronze workshops and planned streets. They found no writing at all.
• Many centuries later, Chinese historians wrote about a line of kings they called the Xia Dynasty.
• Many historians think Erlitou and the Xia were the same civilization. But the name "Xia" comes only from later sources. So historians still argue: was the Xia real, or only a legend?

With the Shang, the arguing stops, because the Shang wrote things down themselves.

3. SPICE-T: Shang China

SPICE-T = Social, Political, Interactions, Cultural, Economic, Technology.

S — Social

Shang society was a social hierarchy (ranked from top to bottom):

Lady Fu Hao was a wife of King Wu Ding. Oracle bones show she led armies and performed rituals. Her tomb, found in 1976 at Anyang, was full of bronzes, jade and weapons.

P — Political

• A dynasty is a series of rulers who all come from the same family. The Shang kings passed power down inside one family for about 500 years.
• The king was both a political and a religious leader. He asked the ancestors for advice before making decisions about war, farming and building.
• The king ruled the land near the capital directly. Further away, nobles ruled for him.

I — Interactions

• The Shang fought many wars with their neighbors. They used bronze weapons and, later, horse-drawn chariots.
• Prisoners of war became slaves or sacrifices.
• In about 1046 B.C.E., the Zhou people from the west defeated the Shang and became China's new rulers.

C — Cultural

• Ancestor worship: the Shang believed dead ancestors could help or harm the living. The king made offerings to them.
• Oracle bones: a king asked a question about the future: Will it rain? Will the harvest be good? Should we go to war? A priest carved the question onto an animal bone or a turtle shell, then heated it until it cracked. He read the cracks as the answer from the gods and ancestors. More than 100,000 oracle bones have been found.
• Writing: the oracle bone script slowly grew into the Chinese characters still used today. That is why scholars can decipher (read) it.

E — Economic

• Most people were farmers. They grew millet (a grain) in the rich soil of the Huang He valley.
• Skilled workers in bronze workshops made vessels and weapons for the king and nobles.
• The Shang also raised silkworms and wove silk.

T — Technology

• Bronze casting: the Shang made large, detailed ritual bronzes: bronze vessels used in ceremonies to honor their ancestors. Bronze was costly, so only the rich and powerful owned it.
• Chariots pulled by horses (from about 1200 B.C.E.).
• A calendar: the oracle bones even record the days of the Shang calendar.

4. Big ideas

1. The bones still talk. Harappan writing can be seen but not read. Shang writing can be read, because the language survived and grew into modern Chinese characters.
2. Later sources passed the test. Later Chinese books contain a list of the Shang kings. The oracle bones show the same royal names, in almost the same order. This is one reason many historians think the Xia may have been real too.
3. Religion and power went together. The king spoke to the ancestors, and that gave him the right to rule.
4. Bronze meant power. Bronze vessels and weapons belonged to the people at the top.

5. Key sources: how do we know what we know?

Remember: an oracle bone is a written record from the time. A ritual bronze is an object. Know which kind of evidence you are using.

6. Timeline and vocabulary

7. Connections

Indus Valley vs Shang: how do we know?

Across China: Sanxingdui

At the same time as the Shang, a different civilization lived far to the south, at Sanxingdui in the Sichuan Basin, near the Chang Jiang (Yangzi River). It made giant bronze masks that look like nothing the Shang made. Sanxingdui left no writing, and no later Chinese books mention it. Its evidence problem is different again.

Next: the Zhou

The Zhou defeated the Shang in about 1046 B.C.E. To justify their conquest, they said the last Shang king was cruel, so Heaven took away his right to rule: the Mandate of Heaven. See the Zhou China packet.

8. Where students lose marks on this topic

Self-check

Cover the answers. Can you answer these in complete sentences?

1. What is a dynasty?
2. Why do historians argue about whether the Xia was real?
3. What made the Shang China's first fully-documented civilization?
4. Describe how an oracle bone was used.
5. Why can scholars read Shang writing but not Harappan writing?
6. How did later Chinese books "pass the test"?