Nat's Asian Studies Blog: The Shang Dynasty (1600

Introduction

The Shang Dynasty, also known as the Yin Dynasty, was the second Chinese Dynasty in the Chinese history. It came after the Xia Dynasty and followed by the Zhou Dynasty; the date of it reign was not very accurate, but it approximately started from 1600 BC and ended at 1046 BC. Its Capital was moved for sixth time since the beginning of the dynasty, but the last and most well known was located at Yin during 1350 BC. This dynasty was in the period of time called "The Bronze Age", which many people used bronze to produce weapons and materials they needed.

Map of the land that was conquered by the Shang Dynasty

(http://www.artsmia.org/art-of-asia/history/images/maps/china-shang-large.gif)

Reason for take over

The Xia Dynasty had ruled China for a long time, it was the first Dynasty ever recorded to exist in China. Jie, the last Emperor of the Dynasty, had ruled people in a bad ways that they hated him. Many people had fought with him and finally he was overthrown by a man called Shang Tang. He was a rebel that fought with the Xia Dynasty for 17 years to end the ruling of the bad Emperor. He started a new Shang Dynasty and became a good Emperor.

Emperor Shang Tang, the first Emperor of the Shang Dynasty

(http://www.crystalinks.com/qinemperor.jpg)

Leader of the Shang Dynasty

There are 31 rulers during the Shang Dynasty as listed below from the first to the last. The most important person in the Shang Dynasty was Emperor Tang, which was very kind and the first Emperor of the Dynasty. And the mostly known Emperor for doing bad thing was the last Emperor of the Dynasty, Emperor Di Xin, also known as King Zhou.

Emperor Tang
Emperor Tai Ding
Emperor Wai Bing
Emperor Zhong Ren
Emperor Tai Jia
Emperor Wo Ding
Emperor Tai Geng
Emperor Xiao Jia
Emperor Yong Ji
Emperor Tai Wu
Emperor Zhong Ding
Emperor Wai ren
Emperor He Dan Jia
Emperor Zu Yi
Emperor Zu Xia
Emperor Wo Jia
Emperor Zu Ding
Emperor Nan Geng
Emperor Yang Jia
Emperor Pan Geng
Emperor Xiao Xin
Emperor Xiao Yi
Emperor Wu Ding
Emperor Zu Geng
Emperor Zu Jia
Emperor Lin Yin
Emperor Geng Ding
Emperor Wu Yi
Emperor Wen Ding
Emperor Di Yi
Emperor Di Xin

The last Emperor of Shang Dynasty, Di Xin, also known as King Zhou

(http://orbat.com/site/history/volume4/442/zhou%20dynasty/zhou%20d1.jpg)

Leader from another civilization during the same time period

King Tutankhamun, also known as King Tut, was a Pharaoh that ruled over Egypt during the same time period as the Shang Dynasty, from 1333 to 1322 BC. He was one of the Pharaoh with an unclear history. His father informations and identity were unknown, but his father was one of the Pharaoh during that time. He became the Pharaoh only at the age of ten years old and died at the age of nineteen years old, but the cause of his death was still a mystery. His popularity came from the fact that he was a ruler since a kid and also because his tomb was the most complete Egyptian tomb found. His mask for the mummy was very well known and famous throughout the world.

The picture of the mask from Tutankhamun's mummy container

(http://reader.travel/userimages/tutankhamun.jpg)

Accomplishments

Technology

During the Shang Dynasty reign of power, many technologies had been created, developed and improved to make life better. The Chinese had learned to combine lead with other metal to create another type of metal called ‘bronze’ for making better and stronger weapons than the other. The lunar calendar was improved for the farmer to show the season for farming, which would tell the farmer that when is the right time to plant which type of crops.

Economy & social

The economy was very good during the Shang Dynasty. Because of the winning of many fights meant that the Shang Dynasty had lots of tributes and slaves from the loser. And since lots of the population in China during the time was farmer, one of the main parts of the economy growth was depended on agriculture. The other main part for the economy growth was bronze product like bronze vessels and handcrafted bronze. The big trading cities are being surrounded by walls to make the King to collect tax more efficiently. There are mainly three type of social status, excluding the Emperor, which was slave, commoner and noble. Many numbers of the commoner are farmers and slave was usually owned by the people that belong to the noble class. This was predicted to be similar to the previous Xia Dynasty, since it was a very old Dynasty with little amount clues on its social information.

Government & religion or philosophy

Like the last Xia Dynasty, the Shang Dynasty’s type of ruling was monarchy, with a government. The country was ruled by the Emperor, who had the absolute power and was believed to have the divine right and power to become the ruler. During the time, Chinese believed in the God called "Shang Ti" and also believed that there were two worlds, the world of the living and the world of the dead. In order to make sure that the dead can easily live in the other world, they would bury money, slaves and necessary things for them to use. They often gave offering to the dead, so they would came to help. Most of the offerings were gifts, food and wine. The food offering would be placed into a bronze container called “Fang Ding Zhu” and the wine must be put into a bronze container called “Jia”. They also believed that by reading the crack on the oracle bone, they could communicate with the dead or even tell the future.

Oracle bones, use for predict the future or tell the fortune

http://cache.eb.com/eb/image?id=12952&rendTypeId=4

Reason for fall

The reason for the fall of the Shang Dynasty was similar to the reason for the fall of the previous Xia Dynasty that was caused by bad ruler. During the ruling of the last two Emperor of the Shang Dynasty, the Chinese people were very unhappy. The Emperor did not care about its people and made people to work harder in order to pay a high rate of taxes, while the Emperor lived comfortably inside of the palace. He also made very terrible laws and tortured those that broke them; in the end he only helped the nobles that supported him, which caused many arguments with each other. Then Wu took the chance, he overthrew and ended the Shang Dynasty. After that he became King Wu, the first Emperor of the Zhou Dynasty.