A map of the expansion of the Shang Dynasty during 1600-1122 B.C. The Shang controlled only the central part of China, extending over much of present-day Henan, Hubei, Shandong, Anhui, Shanxi, and Hebei provinces. 
The Shang dynasty was the first time when bronze casting was industrialized and bronze tools & vessels were produced in royal workshops. Within these workshops, bronze crafts such as drums, bells, weapons (daggers, axes.etc), and ritual jades were made.
Pottery and ceramics were also an important invention of the Shang dynasty. The white or gray patterns engraved on these works of ceramics are identical to those on the bronze vessels. Single pots are covered with thin glaze; the earliest glaze in China.
One of the greatest inventions that is still used today is the lunar calendar. It is made up of two different cycles; the ten Celestial Stems and the twelve Terrestrial Branches. A mixture of two characters (one from each cycle) are used to count the days, this mixture came up to 60 days, separated into two months and six 10-day weeks. This 60-day cycle is then repeated again and again once the previous cycle finishes. Therefore, a 360 day year consists of six complete cycles. Astronomers of the Shang dynasty studied the yearly cycle and found out that the length of a solar year is 365 ¼ days. These astronomers then divided months into long and short months (long months having 30 days, short months 29 days.) Twelve months made up one year.Other inventions:
- lacquer ware
- palaces (enormous buildings with a pounded dirt basement, pillars
were protected from collapsing by a stone base.)
- royal tombs
- oracle bone writing
- 3,000 Chinese symbols (characters)
[ Economy ]
The most important part of the Shang Dynasty’s economy was agriculture. Wheat, barley, and millet (shown in the picture to the right) were vital grain crops of this period. Opening up new fields for harvesting crops was the job for different government officers, along with collecting taxes as well. Labor workers were to serve the emperor and were given tasks such as serving for the military, building palaces and temples, or digging out tombs of dead aristocrats.Slave labor was an essential part of the Shang economy, however slaves in China were mostly owned by the government and worked for the government, unlike the west where slaves were privately owned.
Royal workshops were filled with workers who produced bronze tools and artifacts, ceramics, pottery, musical instruments, and most importantly, silk. Workshops stationed outside the city preserved furnaces, mold, and models of the artifacts being built in the city.
Shang society was ordered according to occupation and inherited rank. The emperor was at the top, served by the aristocrats. Under the rule of the emperor and the aristocratic class were various peasants and artisans, who paid part of their income as taxes. The Shang empire held several large cities, the center of each city contained large buildings, sacrifice centers, storehouses, and other important structures. Most buildings within the empire had pounded-dirt bases into which large stone or bronze ‘castings’ were set to support wooden pillars.
Funeral ceremonies were given great concern in Shang society. When the emperor or an aristocrat died, he would be buried along with his most significant possessions to be used again in the afterlife; these ‘possessions’ included human servants. Sometimes these servants were killed and buried with the emperor/aristocratic corpse, but most of the time they were buried alive with the corpse.
Aristocratic religious officials used divination to converse with the ‘royal ancestral spirits.’ A general technique of divination was scapulimancy, or divination using the shoulder bones (scapulae) of cows, oxen, and other bovine creatures. The bones used in Shang scapulimancy are known as oracle bones. The first step in this procedure was to write a question on the bone, then the spiritualist would heat the bone (with metal rods placed in a fire) until cracks were seen on its surface. The cracks that appeared were said to be the spirits’ answer. Later on in the dynasty, it became more and more common for scapulimancy to be used as a way of reporting human actions to the ancestral spirits, not as a way of questioning the spirits.
[ Government ] 
Tang, the founder of Shang, treated his people generously and employed many clever and moral ministers. The Shang made great advancement in its government during the reign of Tang. The Shang state moved its capital city five times. The most prominent move was during the reign of Emperor Pangeng, the 17th emperor of Shang. He reestablished the capital at Yin, in the area of present-day Xiaotuncun, in Anyang city of Henan province. The new capital was a big part of what made the government of the Shang Dynasty stable afterwards. Once the new capital was successful, it didn’t change again throughout the rest of the Shang Dynasty. Therefore, the Shang Dynasty is sometimes called the “Yin” or the “Yin-Shang Dynasty.” The Shang government was based on the idea of how the state of Yin was the center of the world; all other states belonged to various other less-important regions. Princes of the royal family (siblings of the ruling king), controlled an area not far from the area of central Yin state. Next came the royal cousins of the royal family, they owned large pieces of land where they were able to ‘field’ their own army and collect their own taxes. The third group of government officials consisted of relatives of allies of the emperors of Yin state. The royal ‘domains’ were managed by different officials for different tasks; field officers, pastural officers, guard officers, and hunting officers.
The Shang empire expanded far into Shandong, Zhejiang, Lianjing and even Shanxi, Huan and Sichuan. The Shang emperors were allies with the lords of the surrounding states. These allies provided tributes to the Shang emperors, such as war slaves, cattle, turtle shells and scapulas (for scapulimancy as mentioned above.) Furthermore, during wars, the allied lords helped aid the Shang empire with soldiers.
The emperors of Shang relied on a certain kind of bureaucracy; officers recorded governmental activities (the opening of soil, war policies, the receiving of tributes) and had the rights to charge peasants with certain tasks. The diviners or spiritualists acted as ‘historiographers.’ The organization of various workshops in the city and the collection of taxes from peasants required a certain phase of bureaucratic hierarchy. People who filled in the highest jobs in this hierarchy came from families that had close contact with the royal house.
[ Religion & Philosophy ]
The Shang worshipped Shang Di. Shang Di ruled as the highest god over lesser gods, the sun, the moon, the wind, the rain, and other natural forces. Ancestor worship became a huge part of the Shang religion, along with sacrifice to the gods and ancestors. When a king died, hundreds of slaves and prisoners were often sacrificed and buried with him. People were also sacrificed (in lower numbers) when important events, such as the founding of a palace or temple, occurred.
Shang Di was the highest god of nature and was worshipped differently from the royal ancestors. The royal ancestors were addressed directly for personal consultation, whereas Shang Di was considered a high figure out of reach from contact from any human being. The spirit of ancestors was worshipped in an ancestor temple, with certain types of ritual bronze vessels. The spirits were offered with millet ale and food. [ Timeline ]
1600 B.C. – beginning of Shang Dynasty; the chief of Shang tribe, Tang, led his army and overthrew the Xia Dynasty. Tang established the Shang Dynasty and made Bo the capital city.
1525 B.C. – moved kingdom from Xiang to Geng, then from Geng to Xing
1523 B.C. – first records of Chinese characters
1395 B.C. – the Shang move their capital to Yin (near Anyang)
1200 B.C. – earliest inscribed oracle bones; prosper of Shang oracle bones
1122 B.C. – fall of Shang Dynasty; Battle of Mu Yu; Wu Wang, the “Martial King” of the Zhou defeated the Shang through the use of over 300 chariots
Wu Wang
[Leaders/Contemporaries]
Shang Dynasty leaders:
1. Shang Tan
g (Zi Lu) – Tang reined as Emperor of Shang Dynasty from 1617 B.C. – 1588 B.C. He made himself the first emperor of the self-constructed Shang Dynasty by overthrowing Xia Jie, the last emperor of the Xia Dynasty. Tang saw a weakness in the Xia Dynasty and took the chance to forge eleven wars against the Xia, taking huge amounts of their land. Tang was a ruler favored by his people; he lowered taxes and the recruitment of soldiers. There were five continuous years of drought during which his people suffered greatly. After many attempts to lighten the situation, Tang made golden coins and gave them as gifts to families that lost people to the drought. During the fifth year Tang prayed at Sanglin and made a vow that if it didn’t rain, he will sacrifice himself to God; it rained.
2. Shan
g Zhou (Di Xin) – Di Xin was the last emperor of the Shang Dynasty. During the first parts of his reign, Di Xin had abilities and skills that amazed everyone; he was ‘quick-witted and quick-tempered.’ He used his hot temper to battle the surrounding tribes and claim land for his kingdom. But as his reign deepened, Di Xin fell into drinking, women, listening to songs with ‘crude’ lyrics, and all sorts of behavior unexpected of an emperor; he ignored almost all issues of the kingdom. Di Xin’s brother, Wei Zi, tried to talk him into changing but got sent away. His uncle, Bi Gan, tried persuading Di Xin as well but Di Xin had Bi Gan’s heart ripped out; he claimed he wanted to see what the heart of a knowledgeable person such as Bi Gan looked like. Di Xin’s other uncle, Qi Zi, heard what happened and tried to talk sense into his nephew but got imprisoned. In the end, when Zhou defeated Shang in 1122 B.C., Di Xin burned down his own palace and committed suicide.
Other continent/civilization leaders:
1. Moses – Moses was a Hebrew religious leader, law-
maker, telepathist, and historian. He is conventionally known as the writer of the Torah, or the first five books of the Bible. Furthermore, he is famous for being one of the most significant prophets in Islam. In relation to the Bible, Moses was born to a Hebrew mother who forced him into hiding when the Pharaoh sentenced all Hebrew boys to death; Moses coincidently got adopted by the Egyptian royal family. Moses craved freedom, thus killing an Egyptian ‘slave master’ and fled to become a shepherd. Later, as legends inform, Moses was commanded by God to set the Hebrews free from slavery. Moses fulfilled his commandment in 1320 B.C. (during the reign of emperor Shang Wo Ding of the Shang Dynasty) by leading the Hebrew slaves out of Egypt after the Ten Plagues hit Egypt; he led them through the Red Sea and traveled through the desert for 40 years.
2. Tiye, 
The Nubian Queen of Kemet (Ancient Egypt) – Queen Tiye lived from 1415 B.C. – 1340 B.C. She was looked upon as one of the ‘most influential Queens ever to rule Kemet.’ Queen Tiye was born as a Nubian princess, and grew up to marry the King Amenhotep III of Kemet who ruled during 1391 B.C. It was Queen Tiye who was in power during the reign of her three sons Amenhotep IV (Akhenaton), Smenkhare, and the famous Egyptian King Tutankhamen. For half a century, Queen Tiye ruled Kemet, controlled trade in and out of Egypt, and protected her kingdom’s borders. She was seen as black, and stunningly beautiful and was considered the ‘standard of beauty in the ancient world.’
[Other Information]
- the Shang Dynasty moved its capital 6 times
- in addition to crops, silkworm, dogs, pigs, sheep, and oxen were raised
- the Shang Dynasty is recorded as the second slave dynasty in Chinese history
- many inscriptions on animal bones and turtle shells record the earliest description of stars and lunar eclipses
- peasants mostly lived outside the city, those that lived within the city lived in ‘pits and cellars’
- most wars during the Shang Dynasty was against rebels or barbarians
[Summary]
The Shang Dynasty was the first ever Chinese dynasty that recorded evidence was found on, and it was worthy of its first-dynasty title, for it bore remnants of bronze, ceramic, porcelain craftworks and spiritual beliefs such as oracle bones that have influenced and lived on as a legend to present-day China.
**Works Cited**
1. Theobald, Urich. “Chinese History – Shang Dynasty science, technology and
inventions.” CHINAKNOWLEDGE – a universal guide for China studies. 2000. <http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Myth/shang-tech.html>
2. Theobald, Urich. “Chinese History – Shang Dynasty economy.” CHINA
KNOWLEDGE – a universal guide for China studies. 2000. <http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Myth/shang-econ.html>
3. Smith, Richard J. “The Shang Dynasty”. Chapter Two: Classical China.
February 11th, 2007. http://www.east-asian-history.net/textbooks/PM-China/ch2.html
4. Mandy. “The Shang Dynasty.” Edited Guide Entry. December 22nd, 2003. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A1304966>
5. Mansion, Yu Yuan. “Shang Dynasty.” Travel Guide China. December 26th, 2006. <http://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/history/shang/>
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2007. <http://militaryhistory.about.com/library/lists/blancientchintimeline1600220.html>
7. Sholem, Asch. “Moses in the Bible.” Moses. February 9th, 2007. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses#Shepherd_in_Midian>
8. Swagga. “Tiye.” The Afrocentric Experience: Great African Queens. February 11th, 2007. <http://www.swagga.com/queen.htm#neferti>
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