The oldest of the great Chinese dynasties.
Who were the Shang?
The Shang Dynasty is the oldest historically-verified Chinese dynasty, ruling from 1600 BCE to 1045 BCE. The Shang were devoted worshipers and fierce warriors, who left an indelible mark on Chinese culture which can still be seen today.
Their religion centered around ancestor worship, with elaborate rituals performed by the king, who was believed to have the power to communicate with deceased spirits. These communications could inform real-world decisions, like whether or not to go to war.
The Shang also performed divination rituals, which involved scratching symbols onto bones. These symbols belonged to a writing system whose characters are still used in modern Chinese script. They also made advances in metallurgy, astronomy and mathematics which have shaped China’s history ever since.
Modern studies
The *Book of Documents* is a classical Chinese text which was compiled by the dynasty which followed the Shang. The book contains detailed descriptions of the Shang, but for many centuries, there was no accompanying archaeological evidence. Historians wondered if the Shang were real people, or if they were actually mythical.
Then, at the end of the 19th century, Chinese pharmacists started selling ‘dragon bones’ with mysterious symbols etched on them. When historians heard about this, they traced the bones back to an archaeological site near the Yellow River.
At the site, they found remnants of a walled city that matched descriptions in the *Book of Documents*. Further studies confirmed that the Shang were real after all.
Was the Xia Dynasty real?
The *Book of Documents* mentions another dynasty which existed even earlier than the Shang. The Xia Dynasty, as the text calls them, supposedly ruled between 2070 BCE and 1600 BCE, which would make China one of the oldest continuous civilizations on earth.
Unlike the Shang Dynasty, historians are yet to find any archaeological evidence for the Xia. This lack of evidence has led many to suggest that these ancient people were legendary figures who never really existed. Of course, the same was once said of the Shang Dynasty. It would only take one archaeological site to prove that the Xia existed.
The origins of the Shang
The Shang Dynasty attributed their own existence to an origin myth. This myth told the story of a woman named Jiandi, who swallowed the egg of a blackbird. Miraculously, she gave birth to a man named Xie, from whom all other Shang were descended. Eventually, one of Xie’s descendants overthrew the ruling Xia monarch, and started the Shang Dynasty.
More realistically, the Shang were probably descended from Neolithic cultures who settled in the fertile Yellow River Valley many centuries earlier. Following the familiar pattern of other civilizations, they developed agriculture, then walled cities, then writing and culture.
Oracle bone script
The Shang had a sophisticated writing system, which mainly appeared on oracle bones. These bones were used to divine the future: a priest would carve a question into the bone, then apply some heat, and interpret the pattern of the cracks which formed as a message from beyond the grave.
This writing system is called ‘oracle bone script’, and it was highly advanced for its time. It featured complex symbols and intricate patterns that could convey multiple meanings. About 150,000 oracle bones have been discovered so far – a staggeringly large number.
In later years, this written language was used for additional purposes, like keeping records of daily lives and writing pieces of literature. Eventually, the script evolved into modern Chinese characters.
Ancestor worship
The Shang Dynasty was deeply religious. The most important deity in their belief system was Di, the High God, while they also believed in the power of ancestor spirits, and performed rituals to earn their approval.
These rituals included human sacrifice – usually slaves or prisoners of war. Hunting parties would sometimes head out in search of victims, often targeting primitive tribes beyond the territory of the Shang.
The king would often oversee these sacrifices. He functioned like a head priest, and was supposedly able to communicate directly with Shangdi, a supreme ancestor who everyone else was descended from.
Shang warfare
The Shang Dynasty saw plenty of warfare against rival states and nomadic tribes. The questions etched into oracle bones often related to warfare, and asked for advice from ancestor spirits in relation to ongoing conflicts.
As well as high priests, the kings of the Shang were also renowned strategists, and led their troops into battle. The soldiers wielded bronze weapons such as spears, poleaxes and bows. They were not professional soldiers; they were usually peasants and farmers who took up arms when the king demanded it of them.
The Shang also used chariots, but they did not invent these vehicles. Instead, they probably adopted them after interacting with Indo-European cultures.
The death of Di Xin
Di Xin was the final Shang king. He was renowned for his cruelty and depravity, and was said to have enjoyed torturing his subjects as a form of entertainment.
A rival leader – Wu of Zhou – wanted to depose Di Xin. He gathered an army and marched on the Shang capital. Di Xin’s army refused to defend their cruel leader; some of them joined the rebel forces, while others simply stood there and let the rebels walk past.
Faced with defeat, Di Xin set fire to his own palace, committing suicide rather than handing himself to the rebels. His death brought an end to one of China’s most powerful dynasties, and ushered in a new era under Zhou rule.
The decline of the Shang
The death of Di Xin marked an official end to the Shang Dynasty, but in many ways, the Zhou dynasty continued where their predecessors left off.
The Zhou ruled for almost 800 years, emulating many of the Shang’s practices for the duration of this period. They adopted the same writing system and continued to worship ancestors. They also wrote the *Book of Documents*, which celebrated many of the Shang’s achievements.
However, the Zhou differentiated themselves by introducing a number of reforms. For example, they divided the kingdom into fiefs, each one governed by a local lord. This decentralized power away from the king, making sure that no one as cruel as Di Xin would have such absolute power again.
The legacy of the Shang
The legacy of the Shang lives on in modern China. Most famously, their writing system evolved into the modern characters used today, which is a source of pride for many Chinese people.
The dynastic approach also carried on for centuries; whenever a ruler died, their successor would be chosen from within the royal family. This practice helped to ensure stability during times of transition, and continued as late as 1912, when the country became a republic.
It is hard to trace such a clear line between other ancient cultures and the modern day. In some ways, the Shang never really collapsed. It was just the first link in a chain of dynasties which ruled China for thousands of years.
