Shang dynasty

Shang dynasty, the first recorded Chinese dynasty for which there is both documentary and archaeological evidence. The Shang dynasty was the reputed successor to the quasi-legendary first dynasty, the Xia (c. 2070–c. 1600 bce).

The dates given for the founding of the Shang dynasty vary from about 1760 to 1520 bce, and the dates for the dynasty’s fall also vary, from 1122 to 1030 bce. The period of the dynasty’s rule has traditionally been dated 1766–1122 bce. However, more recent archaeological work has placed the Shang’s starting date at about 1600 bce and has identified the dynasty’s end as being 1046 bce. The latter part of the Shang dynasty, from the reign of the Pangeng emperor onward (i.e., c. 1300 bce), has also been called the Yin dynasty.

Shang China was centred in the North China Plain and extended as far north as modern Shandong and Hebei provinces and westward through present-day Henan province. The kings of the Shang are believed to have occupied several capitals one after another, one of them possibly at modern Zhengzhou, where there are rich archaeological finds, but they settled at Anyang in the 14th century bce. The king appointed local governors, and there was an established class of nobles as well as the masses, whose chief labour was in agriculture. The king issued pronouncements as to when to plant crops, and the society had a highly developed calendar system with a 360-day year of 12 months of 30 days each. It was during the Shang that Chinese writing began to develop, and the symbol for “moon” was—as it has remained—that also for “month.” The calendar took cognizance of both lunar and solar cycles, and, when it became necessary to adjust the basically lunar year to the seasonal reality of the solar year, intercalary months were added.

Musical instruments had evidently come down from the Xia or whatever society preceded the Shang, for the early Shang instruments were well developed and included a clay ocarina, tuned chimes of stone, and bells and drums of bronze. (Legend traces the origin of pipes of bamboo earlier, even before the mythical Xia.)

The architects of the Shang period built houses of timber over rammed-earth floors, with walls of wattle and daub and roofs of thatch. Tombs were dug in clay, and their walls show traces of paintings that strongly resemble some of the ornamentation and animal shapes reflected in the outstanding bronze work of the period. The earliest bronzes of the Shang were primitive, but a course of development is evident that culminates in elegant ceremonial objects as well as a substantial range of cooking and serving dishes and various utensils and ornaments. There was a three-legged li for cooking, and upon it could be fitted a bronze zeng, a bowl with a pierced bottom to function as a steamer—together called a yan. Serving bowls were often stemmed, and pouring vessels, such as the gu, had long spouts. Those and numerous other vessels were often richly decorated.

Pottery objects were abundant, and Shang potters made fired-clay sectional molds for casting bronzes. They also used clay molds to imprint decorations into clay vessels—whose shapes in many cases clearly inspired designs in bronze. Some of the pottery gives evidence of possibly having been shaped on a potter’s wheel. Pottery included dishes and bowls in a white glaze for ceremonial and ritual use, as well as black pottery and a rich brown glaze for more mundane purposes.

Jade carving became quite advanced during the Shang dynasty. Ceremonial weapons of jade were made, as well as jade fittings for actual weapons. Jade figurines included both human and animal shapes, carved in the round in careful detail. Many of those objects have been found in tombs of the period. Other funerary art ran a gamut in size from tiny objects of jade or carved bone and ivory (sometimes inlaid with turquoise) to chariots of lacquered wood. Larger sculptures in marble followed animal motifs.

No literature as such survives from the Shang, but quite numerous records and ceremonial inscriptions and family or clan names exist, carved into or brushed onto bone or tortoise shells. Three kinds of characters were used—pictographs, ideograms, and phonograms—and those records are the earliest known writing in China.