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Who were the kings of the Shang Dynasty?
China's Shang DynastyCheng Tang, 1675 to 1646 BCE.Wai Bing, 1646 to 1644 BCE.Zhong Ren, 1644 to 1640 BCE.Tai Jia, 1535 to 1523 BCE.Wo Ding, 1523 to 1504 BCE.Tai Geng, 1504 to 1479 BCE.Xiao Jia, 1479 to 1462 BCE.Yong Ji, 1462 to 1450 BCE.More items...•
Was the Shang Dynasty led by a king?
King Tang of Shang Tang ruled the kingdom of Shang, a vassal state under the higher rule of the Xia Dynasty. His years of rule are disputed.
How did Shang Dynasty king take decisions?
The Shang believed that the ancestors could also confer good fortune; the Shang would consult ancestors through oracle bones in order to seek approval for any major decision, and to learn about future success in harvesting, hunting, or battle. It appears that there was belief in the afterlife during the Shang dynasty.
How did the Shang kings retain power?
The kings often relied on their armies, led by warlords, to protect the kingdom and stay in power. The king, warlords, and other royal officials were the upper class in China. They passed their land and power to their children.
How did Shang kings control China?
The Shang Dynasty was a monarchy governed by a series of kings, 29 or 30 in total, over the course of almost 600 years. The king was served by officials who held specialized positions of authority and function; and the officials belonged to a hereditary class of aristocrats, usually related to the king himself.
What most helped Shang kings stay in power?
Ch. 20 SSQuestionAnswerWhat led archaeologists to conclude that the Shang believed in life after death?Finding food and weapons buried with kings.What most helped Shang kings stay in power?Use of a powerful army.Shang weapons were especially strong because skilled artisans made these objects from what?Bronze11 more rows
Who did the Shang kings go to for advice?
They appealed to the gods, including the supreme god Shangdi, and consulted their ancestors through oracle bones. The Shang established a lunar calendar using 29-day months, and 12-month years.
Which are characteristics of the royal rulers during the Shang Dynasty?
Which are characteristics of the royal rulers during the Shang dynasty? Kings ruled by divine right. The dynastic rule was hereditary. Royal authority was symbolized by the dragon.
What did Shang kings use to seek advice on important issues from their ancestors?
What did the Shang kings use to seek advice on important issues from their ancestors? Oracle Bones.
How did Shang kings keep power in one family?
Shang kings depended on strong armies to maintain their rule. The kings engaged in almost constant war with their enemies. They fought to keep other clans under control and to defend and expand their kingdoms. They also captured prisoners in war to use as laborers and in human sacrifices.
Why did Shang kings rely on oracle bones?
The Shang people used oracle bones to communicate with ancestors and deities, who were believed to have the power to bestow fortune, disasters and guidance on the living world. At the royal court, the oracle bones divination was carried out by trusted 'diviners' or by the king and other members of the royal family.
How was Shang Dynasty government structured?
Government Structure The Shang dynasty was a hereditary monarchy headed by a king; during the late Shang period the king was known by the title wang. The government was a form of theocracy in which the king's chief role was religious.
Who was the last emperor of the Shang Dynasty?
ZhouZhou, Wade-Giles romanization Chou, also called Zi Zhou, or Dixin, (born early 11th century? bc, China—died 1046 bc, China), last sovereign (c. 1075–46 bc) of the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 bc), who, according to legend, lost his empire because of his extreme debauchery.
How many emperors were there during the Shang Dynasty?
thirty Shang EmperorsThere were thirty Shang Emperors; a dynasty is a succession of rulers from the same family or line.
Who was the ruler of the Zhou Dynasty?
King WuAround 1046 BC, King Wu, the leader of the Zhou (Chou), a subject people living in the west of the Chinese kingdom, overthrew the last king of the Shang Dynasty. King Wu died shortly after this victory, but his family, the Ji, would rule China for the next few centuries. Their dynasty is known as the Zhou Dynasty.
What was the king's authority in the Shang Dynasty?
Even though the Shang dynasty encompassed a fairly large territory, the king’s authority was limited in scope. At the center of the kingdom was an administrative and ceremonial complex in the capital, where the ruling elite had residences, ancestral temples were located, and governmental functions were carried out. Farther away, however, the king had less influence and thus depended on a system of vassalage to oversee his territories. Areas outside the capital were controlled by local aristocrats, who collected taxes, guarded the frontiers, recruited workers for public projects, and provided soldiers for the military; in return for these services the aristocrats were granted honorary titles from the king. At the outer reaches of the Shang territory tribal chiefs had power over the local population, authority that was confirmed by investiture from the king.
What was the most important event of the Shang Dynasty?
The most significant event of the Shang dynasty was the relocation of the capital to the ancient city of Yin in 1350 BC. The capital remained at Yin for the last two centuries of the Shang dynasty, a period sometimes referred to as the Yin dynasty. Archaeological evidence shows that Yin was not surrounded by a city wall—a traditional feature of Chinese cities at the time—suggesting a great display of strength. Archaeologists believe that Yin was the most important city of the Bronze Age (the period beginning in approximately 2000 BC in China).
What was the Shang Dynasty?
The Shang dynasty was the second of three hereditary dynasties—the Hsia, Shang, and Chou —that ruled ancient China. The period of Shang rule is traditionally dated 1766 to 1122 BC. The Shang controlled the North China Plain, an area near the Yellow River roughly corresponding to the modern provinces of Anhui, Hebei, Henan, Shandong, and Shanxi. For many years, it was not clear whether the Shang was a mythical creation or a historical reality, but during the twentieth century new archaeological evidence confirmed the existence of the Shang and gave it a concrete chronological basis. Much of the contemporary knowledge about the Shang comes from a rich collection of artifacts, such as bronze vessels, pottery, and oracle bone inscriptions and excavations from burial sites.
What was the role of the king in the kingdom?
The king was supported by a hierarchy of officials who performed specialized functions. At the top was a secretariat of councilors that was responsible for managing the kingdom’s agricultural calendar, handling palace business, and organizing feasts. This tier also included diviners, ceremonial specialists, and court chroniclers. The next level of administrators comprised civic officials who held ranked positions and military officers.
What were the classes of the Shang people?
Shang society was characterized by significant class divisions. At the top of the hierarchy were the king and the royal family, followed by an elite class of aristocrats who filled the most important military positions and acted as the chief administrative officials. Artisans and craftsmen (particularly bronze workers) comprised an intermediate class; they were distinguished from the peasantry mainly by the quality of their dwellings. The lowest class was made up of peasants, who lived in a state of serflike dependence. Relationships among the classes were based on a strong shared sense of obligation, whether to the king, to one’s ancestors, to one’s superiors, or to one’s dependents.
What are the events of the Shang Dynasty?
Many events concerning the Shang dynasty are mentioned in various Chinese classics, including the Book of Documents, the Mencius and the Zuo Zhuan. Working from all the available documents, the Han dynasty historian Sima Qian assembled a sequential account of the Shang dynasty as part of his Records of the Grand Historian. His history describes some events in detail, while in other cases only the name of a king is given. A closely related, but slightly different, account is given by the Bamboo Annals. The Annals were interred in 296 BC, but the text has a complex history and the authenticity of the surviving versions is controversial.
How long did the Shang rule?
According to the traditional chronology based on calculations made approximately 2,000 years ago by Liu Xin, the Shang ruled from 1766 to 1122 BC, but according to the chronology based upon the "current text" of Bamboo Annals, they ruled from 1556 to 1046 BC.
What dynasty ruled the Yellow River Valley?
The Shang dynasty ( Chinese: 商朝; pinyin: Shāngcháo ), also historically known as the Yin dynasty ( 殷代; Yīndài ), was a Chinese dynasty that ruled in the middle and lower Yellow River valley in the second millennium BC, traditionally succeeding the Xia dynasty and followed by the Zhou dynasty. The classic account of the Shang comes from texts such as the Book of Documents, Bamboo Annals and Records of the Grand Historian. According to the traditional chronology based on calculations made approximately 2,000 years ago by Liu Xin, the Shang ruled from 1766 to 1122 BC, but according to the chronology based upon the "current text" of Bamboo Annals, they ruled from 1556 to 1046 BC. The Xia–Shang–Zhou Chronology Project dated them from c. 1600 to 1046 BC based on the carbon 14 dates of the Erligang site.
Why did Zhou Wu send his brothers to the Shang?
However, Zhou Wu sent three of his brothers and an army to ensure that Wu Geng would not rebel. After Zhou Wu's death, the Shang joined the Rebellion of the Three Guards against the Duke of Zhou, but the rebellion collapsed after three years, leaving Zhou in control of Shang territory.
What happened to the Yin diehards in Zhou?
After Shang's collapse, Zhou's rulers forcibly relocated "Yin diehards" (殷頑) and scattered them throughout Zhou territory. Some surviving members of the Shang royal family collectively changed their surname from the ancestral name Zi (子) to the name of their fallen dynasty, Yin.
Where are the Shang tombs?
Excavation at the Ruins of Yin (near modern-day Anyang ), which has been identified as the last Shang capital, uncovered eleven major royal tombs and the foundations of palaces and ritual sites, containing weapons of war and remains from both animal and human sacrifices.
How many dates were there for the end of the Han Dynasty?
At least 44 dates for the end of the dynasty have been proposed, ranging from 1130 BC to 1018 BC. The traditional dates of the dynasty, from 1766 BC to 1122 BC, were calculated by Liu Xin during the Han dynasty. A calculation based on the "old text" of the Bamboo Annals yields dates of 1523 BC to 1027 BC.
What are the sources of the Shang Dynasty?
The traditional sources for the Shang era include the Bamboo Annals and the Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian. These records were written much, much later than the Shang period, however; Sima Qian wasn't even born until around 145 to 135 BCE. As a result, modern historians were quite skeptical even about the existence of the Shang Dynasty until archaeology miraculously provided some proof.
What was the first Chinese imperial dynasty?
The Shang Dynasty is the first Chinese imperial dynasty for which we have actual documentary evidence. Since the Shang is so very ancient, the sources are unclear. We don't even know for sure when the Shang Dynasty began its rule over the Yellow River Valley of China. Some historians believe that it was around the year 1700 BCE, ...
Which dynasty succeeded the Xia?
In any case, the Shang Dynasty succeeded the Xia Dynasty, which was a legendary ruling family from approximately 2070 BCE to about 1600 BCE. We have no surviving written records for the Xia, although they probably did have a writing system.
Which job might you have done during the Shang Dynasty?
Do you like making things, drawing and painting? Are you a patient person who loves trying new things?
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How many Shang kings were there?
There were 17 Shang kings during this period.
Who could become king if there was no male heir?
Only males could become king. If the king had no male heir, the throne would be given to his brother or a nephew
Why was family important in the Shang Dynasty?
Many were sacrificed so they could serve their masters in the afterlife. Family was important in the Shang dynasty, which was most evident in the worship of ancestors and the oracle bones used to communicate with them. Regardless of social class, the oldest male member of the family was the head of the household.
What was the Shang Dynasty?
The Shang Dynasty. Ancient China was controlled by clans, or extended families, that often fought each other to protect their power over the different regions. When a clan became strong enough to control all others, it was considered a dynasty. The Shang from the region of the Yellow River is an example of a clan that grew powerful enough ...
What was the ruling class in the Shang Dynasty?
The Ruling Class. The social class system of the Shang Dynasty begins with the ruling family. At the head of a dynasty's ruling class was a king. In the Shang dynasty, the kings lived in grand palaces built high on a platform in the royal cities. Strong armies were key to protecting a clan's power, as kings spent most of their time ...
What tools did the Shang farmers use?
The life of a farmer was hard. Even though the Shang were skilled in making iron and bronze weapons, the peasant class had tools of simple stone and wood. They used the tools to grow millet, wheat, rice, barley, vegetables, and fruit. Shang farmers also raised cattle, pigs, chickens, and even silkworms.
What dynasty was the bronze axe from?
A bronze axe from the Shang dynasty.
Why were slaves sacrificed?
Often, slaves were even sacrificed to serve their masters after death. The Shang believed in an afterlife, and a person's social status also dictated the traditions of burial. Kings and nobles were buried in tombs filled with their precious processions, including slaves, servants, and animals to serve them in the afterlife.
Why were nobles important to the King?
The nobles were very important to the king because they were the ones who provided the weapons and foot-soldiers for the military. Often, the nobles would fight in the king's army, as well. Many served as chariot warriors and were renowned for their great warfare skills.
Who was the leader of the Shang Dynasty?
Long thought to be mythological, the discovery of oracle bones in the late nineteenth century proved the existence of the Shang Dynasty. Founded by Cheng Tang, the Shang ruled China for nearly 600 years. Their rulers served as intermediaries between deceased ancestors and those still living. Shang kings ruled over an elite warrior aristocracy. Powerful kings such as Wu Ding oversaw the spread of Chinese writing and the development of bronze technologies including artwork and weapons. Although inscriptions on bronze artwork mentions an advanced system of laws, no examples of these laws have yet been found. After their long reign, the Shang were overthrown in the eleventh century by the Zhou.
How did the Shang people communicate with their ancestors?
It was believed that it was possible to communicate with the spirits of one's ancestors in various ways. One way was by writing messages on bones, known as oracle bones, heating the bones until they cracked, and interpreting the cracks as messages from the gods. However, the most important means for communicating with ancestors was through the king. The Shang believed that the king served as an intermediary connecting Heaven with Earth. The king's main responsibility in this role was to plead with the ancestors to ask Shang-di to provide a productive agricultural season, and to protect the Shang people from natural disasters, most notably earthquakes and floods from the mighty Huang He River. This belief that kings had divine connections provided the rationale for the authoritarian style of rule that was common in China for much of its history.
What was the name of the dynasty that ruled China for 600 years?
By the eleventh century, the Shang had ruled China for nearly 600 years and their dynasty had become weak. A new dynasty, the Zhou, marched to the capital and seized power from the Shang. In the subsequent years, the Zhou would develop a concept known as the Mandate of Heaven ,a belief that rulers are given authority to rule directly from the gods. This mandate could be lost if rulers were immoral or unjust. The Zhou claimed the last kings of the Shang Dynasty lost this mandate through excessive drinking and immoral lifestyles.
Beginning of The Shang Dynasty
Shang Dynasty Achievements
- People of the Shang Dynasty are believed to have used calendars and developed knowledge of astronomy and math, thanks to inscriptions on tortoise shell that have been unearthed by archaeologists. The Shang calendar was at first lunar-based, but a solar-based one was developed by a man named Wan-Nien, who established a 365-day year through his observations …
Shang Cities
- During the Shang Dynasty, there were several large settlements, including Zhengzhou and Anyang, though these are not believed to be as densely urban as Mesopotamiansettlements during the same time. Anyang became the capitol around 1300 B.C. under King Pan Geng and at the time was called Yin. Zhengzhou is renowned for its walls, which ran for four miles and were 32 feet hi…
Shang Dynasty Religion
- Much of the history of the Shang Dynasty has been deciphered from oracle bones found in Anyang, which present a kingdom at war, with narratives of shifting alliances with other powers. Prisoners of war were used as slaves or sometimes slaughtered for sacrifice. Within the religion, sacrifice was practiced, sometimes in large groups. Within Shang culture, the king also function…
Shang Graves
- In the first half of Shang rule, royal burials included the burial of subordinates in the chambers alongside their ruler. By the end of the dynasty, the number of bodies in each burial had risen. One grave in Anyang dating to around 1200 B.C. housed the unnamed ruler’s cadaver accompanied by 74 human bodies as well as horses and dogs. Shang rulers would even send out hunting parties …
Sources
- Cambridge Illustrated History of China. Patricia Buckley Ebrey. The Dynasties of China. Bamber Gascoigne. Early China: A Social and Cultural History. Li Feng. Early China and the Shang Dynasty: Columbia.edu. Shang and Zhou Dynasties: The Bronze Age of China; The MET.
Type of Government
- A hereditary monarchy, the government of the Shang dynasty was a form of theocracy, in which the king’s chief role was religious. The king was supported by a hierarchy of officials who performed specialized functions. Local aristocrats and tribal chiefs controlled regions away from the center of government with the approval of the king.
Background
- The Shang dynasty was the second of three hereditary dynasties—the Hsia, Shang, and Chou—that ruled ancient China. The period of Shang rule is traditionally dated 1766 to 1122 BC. The Shang controlled the North China Plain, an area near the Yellow River roughly corresponding to the modern provinces of Anhui, Hebei, Henan, Shandong, and Shanxi. For many years, it was not cle…
Government Structure
- The Shang dynasty was a hereditary monarchy headed by a king; during the late Shang period the king was known by the title wang. The government was a form of theocracy in which the king’s chief role was religious. The Shang king was, first and foremost, a mediator between the physical world and the divine. The Shang worshipped the high god Di, and ...
Political Parties and Factions
- Shang society was characterized by significant class divisions. At the top of the hierarchy were the king and the royal family, followed by an elite class of aristocrats who filled the most important military positions and acted as the chief administrative officials. Artisans and craftsmen (particularly bronze workers) comprised an intermediate class; they were distinguishe…
Major Events
- The most significant event of the Shang dynasty was the relocation of the capital to the ancient city of Yin in 1350 BC. The capital remained at Yin for the last two centuries of the Shang dynasty, a period sometimes referred to as the Yin dynasty. Archaeological evidence shows that Yin was not surrounded by a city wall—a traditional feature of Chinese cities at the time—suggesting a gr…
Aftermath
- The Shang dynasty came to an end in 1122 BC. The traditional story of its demise echoes the account of its beginning: The last Shang king, a tyrannical ruler named Chou Hsin (c. 1154–c. 1122 BC), was overthrown by King Wu Wang (d. 1115 BC), the ruler of the western frontier state of Chou. Wu justified his actions by proclaiming that he had a “mandate from heaven” to rescue th…
Overview
The Shang dynasty (Chinese: 商朝; pinyin: Shāng Cháo), also known as the Yin dynasty (Chinese: 殷代; pinyin: Yīn Dài), was a Chinese royal dynasty that ruled in the Yellow River valley in the second millennium BC, traditionally succeeding the Xia dynasty and followed by the Western Zhou dynasty. The classic account of the Shang comes from texts such as the Book of Documents, Bamboo Annals a…
Late Shang at Anyang
The oldest extant direct records date from approximately 1250 BC at Anyang, covering the reigns of the last nine Shang kings. The Shang had a fully developed system of writing, preserved on bronze inscriptions and a small number of other writings on pottery, jade and other stones, horn, etc., but most prolifically on oracle bones. The complexity and sophistication of this writing s…
Traditional accounts
Many events concerning the Shang dynasty are mentioned in various Chinese classics, including the Book of Documents, the Mencius and the Zuo Zhuan. Working from all the available documents, the Han dynasty historian Sima Qian assembled a sequential account of the Shang dynasty as part of his Records of the Grand Historian. His history describes some events in detail, while in other cases only the name of a king is given. A closely related, but slightly different, account is given b…
Early Bronze Age archaeology
Before the 20th century, the Zhou dynasty (1046–256 BC) was the earliest Chinese dynasty that could be verified from its own records. However, during the Song dynasty (960–1279 AD), antiquarians collected bronze ritual vessels attributed to the Shang era, some of which bore inscriptions.
In 1899, several scholars noticed that Chinese pharmacists were selling "drag…
Absolute chronology
The earliest securely dated event in Chinese history is the start of the Gonghe Regency in 841 BC, early in the Zhou dynasty, a date first established by the Han dynasty historian Sima Qian. Attempts to establish earlier dates have been plagued by doubts about the origin and transmission of traditional texts and the difficulties in their interpretation. More recent attempts have compared the traditional histories with archaeological and astronomical data. At least 44 dates for the end …
Kings
The earliest records are the oracle bones inscribed during the reigns of the Shang kings from Wu Ding. The oracle bones do not contain king lists, but they do record the sacrifices to previous kings and the ancestors of the current king, which follow a standard schedule that scholars have reconstructed. From this evidence, scholars have assembled the implied king list and genealogy, findin…
See also
• Chinese mythology
• Chinese sovereign
• East Yi West Xia
• Historical capitals of China
• Women in ancient and imperial China
Further reading
• Allen, Herbert J. (translator) (1895), "Ssŭma Ch'ien's Historical Records, Chapter III – The Yin Dynasty", Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 27 (3): 601–615, doi:10.1017/S0035869X00145083. {{citation}}: |first= has generic name (help)
• Chang, Kwang-Chih (1980), Shang Civilization, Yale University Press, ISBN 0-300-02885-7.