The Shang Dynasty in the Bronze Age marked a sharp qualitative leap in the history of China. At this time, art, writing, architecture and crafts were actively developing. This culture was discovered by archaeologists relatively recently, and the soil of China to this day never ceases to amaze scientists with new artifacts. Even at the beginning of the 20th century, researchers believed that the history of the country began only with the Zhou era (1045–221 BC), but recent archaeological discoveries push this date back many centuries.
Formation of the first state
The Shang-Yin dynasty in China is currently the most ancient, confirmed by archaeological finds. The state existed from 1600 to 1046 BC. Before him, according to the mythological tradition, the legendary Xia dynasty (2070-1756 BC) ruled, but there is no consensus among historians about the reliability of its existence.
According to legend, the founder of the Shang Dynasty was Cheng Tang (years of life 1766-1754 BC). His family descended from the son of the legendary Yellow Emperor Huangdi, who is consideredfounder of Chinese statehood. One of the descendants of the latter received from the mythical Emperor Yu, who saved the country from the flood, the Shang inheritance on the left bank of the Huang He. The emergence of culture in this region is not accidental, as the periodically overflowing river applied silt to the fields, which made them especially fertile.
There is also an opinion that a group of Indo-Aryan tribes who moved to the east played a significant role in the development of the Shang dynasty in China, since this culture of the Bronze Age developed very rapidly.
In the future, this genus became known as Yin. This was due to the fact that the ruler Pan-gen moved the settlements from the northern territories, where there were often extensive floods, to the southern region of the country. Presumably, the first capital of the Chinese Shang Dynasty was the city of Bo near the modern city of Yanshi. Later, it was transferred 5 times to different places and had other names. Eventually, the nineteenth emperor established a capital at Ying, near Anyang.
Territorial communities of that time began to merge into cities. They were surrounded by walls and built according to a special plan. On an area of about 6 km2 there were both large palaces and quarters with handicraft workshops. Thus, the first centers of the emerging Chinese civilization appeared. The need for unification arose from the need to collectively deal with floods and neighboring hostile tribes.
Rulers
The head of the united urban communities was called "van". This man possessed both the highest military and priestly power. Under the direction ofVan, other groups of residents were engaged in field work, and up to several thousand people were involved in them at once. People with different status served in his household: forced laborers, guards, community members and their bosses, warriors.
Among them were rich and noble families who inherited various positions under the van. However, his power, according to the found inscriptions, was still limited to the council of elders and the people's assembly. The choice of military leaders and members of the council of tribal elders took place with the permission of the wang.
On the nature of society in those days, scientists do not have a clear answer. Some researchers consider it a proto-state, while others consider it a mature state organism.
The years of the reign of the Wangs of the Shang Dynasty can be briefly represented as the following chronology (BC):
- Cheng Tang (Wu-wang), Da Ding-wang, Wai Bing-wang, Zhong Ren-wang, Da Jia-wang, Wo Ding-wang, Da Geng-wang, Xiao Jia-wang, Yun Ji -wang, Da Wu-wang, Zhong Ding-wang, Wei Ren-wang, He Dan-chia-wang, Zu Yi-wang, Tzu Xin-wang, Wo Jia-wang, Tzu Ding-wang, Nian Geng-wang, Yang Jia-wang - 1600-1300.
- Pan Geng-wang, Xiao Xin-wang, Xiao Yi-wang – 1300-1251.
- Wu Ding-wang – 1250-1192.
- Zu Geng-wang, Zu Jia-wang, Lin Xin-wang, Kang Ding-wang – 1191-1148.
- Wu Yi-wang - 1147-1113.
- Wen Ding-wang – 1112-1102.
- Dee Yi-wang – 1101-1076.
- Di Xin-wang – 1075-1046.
Interesting archaeological finds
Amazing finds were discovered near Anyang, in Henan province,where the capital of the Shan-Yin dynasty used to be located. It was a large urban settlement with an area of over 20 km2. Many graves were also found here, some of which reached a depth of ten meters, and the area of the largest of them was 380 m2. These burials resembled pyramids in shape, and numerous items of utensils, precious gold jewelry, and bronze weapons were found inside them.
Scientists suggest that these were the cemeteries of the Vanir. Hundreds of people were buried with them, and next to the pyramids, thousands of decapitated prisoners of war with their hands tied and chariots along with horses were buried. The total number of victims exceeds 14 thousand.
In 1976, the tomb of Fu Hao was found here. Hundreds of valuable items were preserved in her grave, untouched by robbers who devastated this territory for 3 millennia. The buried body has not survived, but according to the inscriptions on archaeological artifacts, scientists have learned that this woman was one of Dean's favorite wives and was a military leader. Fu Hao led an army of 13,000 people who fought against hostile tribes.
Currently, this site in China is recognized as one of the most significant in archeology, and excavations continue to this day.
Military power of the country
The bulk of the van's troops were infantry from the communal population. But during the Shang Dynasty, a new formidable weapon appeared -war chariots drawn by domesticated horses. Historians believe that they were borrowed from the Middle East. Thanks to their use, the rulers of the state were able to effectively suppress the uprisings and fight the external enemy. Chariots belonged to noble people, as they were an expensive tool. Their design was a two-wheeled cart, in which there were 3 warriors.
The meaning of the chariot in those days can be compared with the tanks in the present. At the end of the Shang Dynasty, other tribes adopted this military technology. It is possible that this factor also played a role in the fall of the state.
Various types of weapons were found in all the graves of the Shants found near Anyang. The wars helped the Vanir maintain their authority and accumulate we alth by capturing valuable items made of tin, copper, gold and jasper. The infantry was armed with bows, spears and klevets (crushing and piercing weapons). The front line warriors protected themselves with shields and helmets. Usually a unit of 70-80 fighters interacted with 1 chariot.
The military campaigns of the Shang Dynasty in China were long and distant. One of them, according to ancient inscriptions, lasted almost a year.
Lifestyle
The population in China during the Shang Dynasty was engaged in agriculture, cattle breeding, fishing and hunting. In those days, the climate was milder, and in some regions it was possible to harvest 2 crops. The use of the "paired plowing" method began, when 2 people worked the land at once - one pushed the furrow stick, and the otherdragged her. This method later became widespread in the agricultural machinery of the country.
The peasants practiced manual labor using primitive tools made of stone and wood (ploughs, hoes, sickles). In the same period, the practice of crop rotation was introduced, which allowed to increase yields.
Millet, wheat, barley, legumes, vegetables and fruits, as well as mulberries for sericulture were grown from cultivated plants. The households kept pigs, goats and sheep, cows, horses, chickens, geese and ducks as pets. Elephants brought from the south were also tamed. The objects of hunting for the Shants were hares, foxes, wild boars, badgers, deer and tigers. Some historians believe that pastoralism, rather than agriculture, was the basis of life in ancient China during the Shang Dynasty. This opinion is supported by mass sacrifices of several hundred heads of cattle in one ritual.
Cowrie shells (sea molluscs) and their bronze imitations were used as money, but trade was poorly developed and was mainly characterized by exchange relations.
Crafts
In the urban settlements of that time, there were entire quarters set aside for the workshops of potters, copper and bronze casters, bone carvers, stonemasons, and other artisans. The technique of bronze casting, created in this era, was widely used in the future in iron smelting. Charcoal was used as fuel for the smelter. Liquid metal was poured into prefabricated clay molds that couldconsist of many parts.
The weight of some castings reached several hundred kilograms. The consumers of such products were mainly the upper strata of society, and bronze vessels were used most often for ritual actions. They depicted complex ornaments, described the military campaigns of the van and marked his orders.
One of the achievements of the Shang Dynasty in the Bronze Age is the development of palace construction. For the construction of large houses, ancient engineers made special foundations, pedestals, and hundreds of people participated in the work. A certain level of architectural skill has been achieved, allowing the creation of strong structures and reliable underground chambers of the burial grounds. Managing urban development was one of the most important responsibilities of the van.
Writing
One of the culminating finds for archaeologists at Anyang was the numerous tortoise shells and bones of domestic animals, which were inscribed with pictographic inscriptions. The hieroglyphs during the Shang Dynasty were logograms, that is, symbols denoting whole words. This writing technique, according to historians, was quite justified, since China was inhabited by numerous tribes with different dialects. These characters became the prototype of modern Chinese hieroglyphic writing.
The shells and bones of animals were used for divinatory purposes. Presumably, most of them were buried during the reign of Wu Ding-wang, and some evenremains of the red paint on which the engraving was made. The total number of these finds exceeded 17 thousand, which was an excellent opportunity to study that era.
Art & Science
The art of the ancient trenches was primarily manifested in elegant and fine carvings and sculptural images. Carving was performed on clay vessels, wood, bone, stone sculptures (including those made of hard rocks - marble and jasper), on jade jewelry. The intricate ornament had a consistent style and artistic taste.
The state of the Shang Dynasty kept a calendar, the months of which corresponded to the phases of the moon, and the years to the position of the sun. The year was divided into 12 months, and every 7 years an additional “inserted” thirteenth month was introduced. Such a system was very similar to the ancient Babylonian, which gave scientists another reason to assume that many borrowings came from the West.
Religion
Ancient Shants believed that life after death continues in another kingdom. Therefore, even the poorest people were put coins in the grave so that the deceased could take his proper position there. Exquisite utensils, luxury items were placed in the graves of the Vans, women, men, dogs, horses were sacrificed, which were supposed to accompany the owner in the afterlife. After the earth over the burial ground was rammed, additionally other animals were killed - monkeys, deer. Headless prisoners of war and slaves were buried in neighboring mass graves.
Sacrifices were made not only on the occasion of the death of a noble person. This was done during the war, as an act of honoring the spirits of ancestors, mountain and river gods during ritual meals. During one of them, more than 1 thousand people were sacrificed.
Among the trenches, the cult of totem ancestors and the cult of the earth were of particular importance. The supreme deity was Shandi (or Di), and the dead Vanir acted as an intermediary between him and ordinary people.
Scientists believe that there was a cult center near Anyang during the Shang Dynasty, where divination took place. They were purely pragmatic. The rulers asked about illnesses, the birth of an heir, harvest, wars, hunting. Thanks to them, historians were able to learn in detail about the nature of the life of the inhabitants of the first Chinese state.
The text of fortune-telling was written on a bone or tortoise shell, a small depression was drilled on the reverse side. A sharp heated tip was applied to it, as a result, cracks were obtained, through which the predictor read the message. According to some reports, at least 120 oracles served at the court of the van at that time.
The Shang and Zhou Dynasties: Mandate of Heaven Theory
The cult of Shandi (literally translated from Chinese as "the highest emperor") subsequently transformed into an ideological justification for strengthening and inheriting the power of the van. The rulers of Shang-Yin were declared to be direct descendants of the supreme sovereign deity. According to an ancient legend, Shandi, having taken the form of a bird, conceived a son, who is the progenitor of the Shants. After their death, the Vanir served in the afterlife, helping Shandiin all his affairs, and also influenced the fate of living people.
During the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the Mandate of Heaven theory becomes a key concept of political culture in ancient China. The ruler becomes a "son of heaven", having special trust from higher powers. It could be earned through positive moral deeds. The loss of virtue was the main reason for the loss of power. Therefore, in Chinese literature, the rulers of the Zhou dynasty appear as bearers of high moral values.
The Fall of the State
The collapse of the Shang dynasty in ancient China was preceded by a long crisis, which was associated with several factors:
- The state was surrounded by tribes, with which they had to constantly fight. These regular skirmishes have weakened the country.
- Among the population, morale was lost, and internal organization was “limping”. The van's prestige has dropped significantly and the volume of offerings has decreased.
- The neighboring state of Zhou has grown quite strong both militarily and economically.
- The tightening of orders within the country led to the creation of an image of an unvirtuous Shang ruler, the latter of whom, according to legend, was distinguished by cruelty and debauchery. This was also taken advantage of by his enemies.
After over 800 years, the Shang dynasty fell. The power over the cities was seized by the Zhou family. However, the achievements that were mastered during the Shang-Yin period laid the foundation for the next bright stage in the development of ancient Chinese civilization.
