Bronze Age China – Shang dynasty [1600 ~ 1045 BC]
[Shang dynasty](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shang_dynasty) [1600 ~ 1045 BC] is fascinating as a result of it’s actually legendary however nonetheless was an actual historic entity testified by each historic scripts and archeological findings – the identical manner Mycenae or Troy was
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* Primordial bronze age civilization earlier than the “moralization” of the Chinese language civilization
* A lot of its bronze artifacts look type of Latin American – **summary, intimidating, a little bit bit crude**. In all probability this was the time when a small variety of ruling households, for the primary time, began exerting absolute energy over the overwhelming majority of individuals (together with slaves captured from wars) based mostly on expertise and weaponry. The aesthetics of many artifacts give attention to the sheer show of energy (scary faces, for instance)
* An archetypal Shang bronze artifact: a **bronze ritual vessel** [https://imgur.com/a/l0L0t22](https://imgur.com/a/l0L0t22)
* There’s additionally many pop theories about **human sacrifice** throughout the Shang dynasty. Some historians’ work appear to help that such rituals had certainly occurred (within the type of the execution of slaves or warfare prisoners) ([link](https://websites.psu.edu/kerenw/2015/05/27/historical-background-of-human-sacrifices-during-shang-dynasty/))
** Within the following Zhou dynasty, the show of energy is much more moderated by sophistication and ethical virtues. Human sacrifice disappeared, regardless that the observe of burying slaves alive with a lifeless ruler lasted till later interval.
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* Primitive writing – pyromancy, divination, and oracle bones
* **Oracle bones** ([link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_bone)) are one other fascinating artifacts. The origin of the Chinese language characters could be very mystical – “oracle bone scripts”, a type of early logogram (much like hieroglyphs), had been **carved on turtle shells and ox bones that had been utilized in divination**
* The divination course of (pyromancy): “Divination questions had been carved onto the bone or shell in oracle bone script utilizing a pointy software. Intense warmth was then utilized with a metallic rod till the bone or shell cracked as a result of thermal growth. **The diviner would then interpret the sample of cracks** and write the prognostication upon the piece as effectively”
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* Archeological discovery – I feel it is a lovely story by itself!
* The nineteenth century: **the oracle bones had been used as drugs by native farmers** (within the previous Shang territory) who found them from floor.
* 1899: a Chinese language scholar named [Wang Yi-rong](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_bone#Discovery) (influenced by the “evidential scholarship” within the Qing dynasty which was once more influenced by Western science) **first acknowledged that oracle bone scripts may be a really historic predecessor** of the Chinese language characters
* Information of the invention of the oracle bones created a marketplace for them amongst antiques collectors, and led to a number of waves of unlawful digs over a number of many years
* 1910: The supply of the oracle bones was ultimately traced to a village – totally different students **hypothesized that that place may be the capital of the legendary Shang dynasty**
* 1917: A scholar named Wang Guowei **deciphered the oracle bone inscriptions of the names of the Shang kings and constructed a whole Shang family tree** (which matched with the present historic historiography)
* 1928-37: The primary archeological excavations of the hypothetical [capital](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yinxu) of the Shang dynasty had been led by an archeologist named Li Ji, referred to as the daddy of Chinese language archeology. The crew uncovered **the stays of a royal palace, royal tombs, and greater than 100,000 oracle bones**
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* The Yellow River civilization was extra **lush and had unique animals comparable to rhinoceros and elephants**
* That is much like what occurred within the Sahara – the **ecological change**. There’s a ebook titled “The Retreat of the Elephants: An Environmental Historical past of China”
* There are **bronze artifacts of elephants and rhinoceros**
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephants_in_ancient_China](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephants_in_ancient_China)
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhinoceroses_in_ancient_China](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhinoceroses_in_ancient_China)
* The Traditional of Poetry is a Confucian traditional, and a compilation of historic poems that had been orally transmitted. One of many poems is:
>And go to the corridor of our prince,
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>There elevate the **cup of rhinoceros horn**,
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>And want him lengthy life, – that he might dwell for ever.
** **The traditional tales and poems of China are filled with unique crops, animals and tribes** – as a result of the Southern a part of the Chinese language landmass was lined with forests, and non-Han ethnic individuals in tribal societies lived there.
** The Verses of Chu ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chu_Ci](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chu_Ci)) can also be an enchanting assortment of songs from a Southern state of Chu (1,030~223 BC), which was a combination of Han Chinese language migrants and varied ethnic tribes
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* “**Pond of wine, forest of meat**”: The demise of the Shang dynasty and Shang-Zhou transition
* The legend has it that the final king of Shang and his “lovely but depraved” spouse Daji had been corrupt, tyrannical and even sadistic
* They’d a pond full of wine, and a forest filled with hanging roasted meat of their backyard. **Bare men and women chased one another in an orgiastic vogue**. The well-known idiom “Pond of Wine, Forest of Meat” comes from a later “Information of the Grand Historian” (written in 91 BC)
* The individuals of Shang revolted ultimately, and a brand new [Zhou dynasty](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhou_dynasty) was established (also referred to as Yin-Zhou revolution) (There’s a complete Japanese manga about it – [link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoshin_Engi) lol)
* The brand new Zhou dynasty had extra modest and moralistic tradition, which might affect the later Chinese language dynasties for a really very long time. They established a **strict primogeniture** (father-son succession) system that had not been the case throughout the Shang dynasty.
* **The home of Shang survived** although. A few of them revolted after the autumn of their dynasty, however others had been granted land. [The state of Song](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_(state)) was dominated by the Shang descendants as a vassal state of Zhou. There was extra brother-to-brother succession of the throne within the state of Track, in comparison with different Zhou states.
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I am an East Asian particular person, and I grew up figuring out just a few hundred Chinese language characters and idioms originating from China’s historic previous. So these tales are all the time fascinating to me. I hope somebody finds this attention-grabbing!
Comments ( 6 )
You always have to be careful about claims that one dynasty is more modest and moral than its predecessor, since it’s likely the historians or storytellers in the new dynasty writing about the old one. The oracle bones and tombs from the Shang Dynasty suggest it was highly bureaucratic, meticulous about keeping records, and orderly in arranging the tombs. There’s no archaeological evidence of lakes of wine or forests of meat or mass torture.
Many modern historians believe the last king in the Shang Dynasty was as reasonable and intelligent as most rulers and not as decadent and cruel as following dynasties portrayed him to be. China is justifiably proud of its long history, but modern archaeology and historical research has often cast doubt on the reliability of written records, let alone popular folklore and literature.
I miss the Bronze age — those were fun times! 🙂
I’m interested in whether the collapse of the Eastern Meditteranean (and wider?) bronze age had echos or similar patterns back in Asia? The collapse was around 1200 BCE
>The house of Shang survived though. Some of them revolted after the fall of their dynasty, but others were granted land. The state of Song) was ruled by the Shang descendants as a vassal state of Zhou. There was more brother-to-brother succession of the throne in the state of Song, compared to other Zhou states.
Confucius himself was in fact a descendant of the ruling house of the State of Song himself, and by extension, the royal Zi clan of the Shang dynasty. All of Confucius’ descendants in our time, therefore, have traceable lines of descent going all the way back to the royal clan of the Shang dynasty.
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>They established a **strict primogeniture** (father-son succession) system that had not been the case during the Shang dynasty.
Just to clarify, the term ***primogeniture*** just means *the oldest child inherits*. The term you’re looking for is ***agnatic primogeniture***, in which *the oldest son inherits*, as opposed to ***cognatic primogeniture***, in which *the oldest child regardless of gender inherits*, or ***enatic primogeniture***, in which *the oldest daughter inherits*.
Have always been interested in what was going on in East Asia during the bronze age and post neolithic.
According to John Kay, the Shang were one polity of many in that day. They weren’t a unified state yet, they were a collection of allied settlements bound by family ties and ritual. There were other settlements of different communities interspersed with Shang sites, perhaps similar to how 5th century Britain was spotted with ex-Roman, Anglo-Saxon, and Norse villages.
But Kay also says Chinese writing today traces back to the Shang writing system, as well as some other cultural elements such as bronze working. So they were especially influential, if arguably not quite “Chinese” yet.
I learned something about the Shang house dynasty in elementary i like the box it’s looks pretty cool bro, are like they’re descendants still alive tho