Ancient China (Shang Dynasty)

1. Ancient China (Shang Dynasty)

2. Importance of Rivers

3. Hammurabi’s code Mycenaean Civ. In Greece Vedic period in India Stonehenge Mayans processed rubber Homer’s Troy fell, i.e. the heroic age of Greece Outside China during Shang period

4. YELLOW RIVER YANGZI RIVER

5. Settlements began to crop up along the Yellow and Yangzi Rivers • Created a need for recognized authorities who could maintain order, resolve disputes, and organize public works projects • Village-level organizations—localized states only. • Small dynasties followed, and extended their control over larger regions Population Growth

6. “A sequence of powerful leaders in the same family” • Xia Dynasty 2100 to 1600 BCE • Shang Dynasty 1766 to 1122 B.C.E. A Definition of Dynasties Shang Dynasty

7. The Shang was the second hereditary dynasty in China. It lasted almost six hundred years with thirty-one kings over seventeen generations. Shang used to be an old tribe who lived in the lower reach of the Yellow River. It was a tributary of the Xia Kingdom The Shang Dynasty—overview.

8. Territory of the Shang • According to Zhou-era traditional texts, the city of Anyang in northern Henan province was the preeminent Shang capital, • The city served as the ritual capital of the last nine Shang kings, from Wu Ding (21st king, c1200-1181 BCE) to Di Xin (29th king, c. 1085-1045 BCE).

10. Aspects of Shang Culture.

11. Agriculture

12. Yellow River • Takes its name from the vast quantities of loess soil it picks up along its route • Loess is an extremely fine and powder-like soil that gradually builds up in the river bed, raising the river bed and forcing the water out of its established path • Yellow River periodically unleashes terrible floods, earning it the nickname “China’s Sorrow”

13. Loess soil is extremely fertile and easy to work • wooden instruments Agriculture

14. Crops • Initially, millet was the main crop (especially in the north) • Sometime thereafter, the Chinese began cultivating rice (especially in the south where the Yangzi River is less prone than the Yellow River to devastating floods) • Extensive rice production would require developing a complex irrigation system (made possible by centralizing authority of the Dynasty)

15. Cities Ruins of Banpo Village near modern Xian

16. Cities: Shang • Vast network of walled towns whose local rulers recognized authority of the Shang kings • Shang rulers moved their capital six times • Capital contained a complex of royal palaces and eleven large and lavish royal tombs Royal tomb at Anyang

17. Social Hierarchy

18. Royal family and allied noble families • Resided in large, palatial compounds and lived on the agricultural surplus and taxes delivered by their subjects • Power tied to bronze • Privileged class of hereditary aristocrats • Rose from the military allies of the rulers • Possessed extensive land holdings and performed military and administrative tasks • Some access to education for those who lived in cities Social Hierarchy: Shang

19. Small class of free artisans and craftsmen • Lived in cities • Those who worked almost extensively for the privileged classes • Peasants • Semi-servile class that lived in the countryside and did not own land • Provided agricultural, military, and labor services for lords in exchange for plots to cultivate, security, and a portion of the harvest • Slaves • Most were captured enemy warriors • Performed hard labor that required a large work force such as clearing fields or building city walls • During the Shang Dynasty many were victims of human sacrifice during funerals and other religious and ritual observances Social Hierarchy: Ancient Shang

20. Sang Rulers were kings who were regarded as mediums between the people and the spirit world. • They claimed their authority from the Lord on High (Shang-di). • The Royal Authority was symbolized by the dragon, a hybrid beast that stood for strength, fertility, and life-giving. • Militaristic dynasty Politics

21. no organized religion or official priesthood • Did not recognize a personal supreme deity who intervened in human affairs or took a special interest in human behavior • Texts do refer to an impersonal heavenly power– tian (“heaven”)– that was responsible for bestowing and removing the mandate of heaven on rulers Religion

22. Naturalism & locality • Ancestral Worship • Became mediators between Heaven and Earth. The Chinese would make regular sacrifices to them and libations • the everyday workings of nature, the Chinese found harmony and order. The natural order was symbolized by the circle. • Their Lord on High (Shang-di) and as Heaven (Tian) regulated the working of the universe and guided the destinies of all people. Qi (“chee”) was the substance of the universe that the energy that pervades the human body. oracle bones--the earliest example of Chinese writing.

23. Chinese mythology described cosmic unity in terms of the marriage of the Tian (Heaven) and Kun( Earth). • yin/yang. • “the foundation of the entire universe.” • The interaction of yang, the male principle (associated with lightness, warmth, and the sun) • and yin, the female principle (associated with darkness, softness, the Earth, and the moon) describes the creative energy of the universe.

24. the patriarchal head of the family presided over rites and ceremonies venerating ancestors’ spirits • Believed that the spirits of ancestors passed into another realm of existence from which they had the power to support and protect their surviving families • the families demonstrated the proper respect and ministered to the spirit’s needs through offerings, usually at an alter, or the funereal sites. AncestralWorship Burning paper gifts for the departed is one traditional form of ancestor worship

25. Records centered on human sacrifice are called rénjì bǔcíin Shang dynasty oracle-bone inscriptions. • Rénjìrefers to the ritual of killing living human individuals to worship spirits • Methods of sacrifice included: beheading, splitting the bodies into halves, chopping to death, blood loss, burning, boiling, and burying. • The selecting of killing methods was dependent on the recipients and the purpose of the worship Human Sacrifice & the Shang Dynastic Religion.

26. The purpose mainly was to pray for blessings and support from ancestral spirits and ward off misfortunes. • The methods of killing human sacrifices for worshipping natural spirits were burning, burying, drowning etc. • The main purpose was to pray for a good harvest year and timely rain. • when they were worshipping their ancestors, they selected various drastic killing methods • Common methods of killing human sacrifices for worshipping ancestral spirits were beheading, dismembering, beating, cutting off feet, taking blood, boiling, displaying, drying etc. • The purpose mainly was to pray for blessings and support from ancestral spirits

27. Economic Exchange Cowrie shells used as money

28. Archaeology & the Shang Period Tomb of a warrior queen.

29. Fu Hao’s Tomb • Anyang is an important site because of the tomb of Fu Hao, royal consort of Wu Ding. • Fu Hao's is the only one conclusively identified with a person named in ancient texts.

30. Findings from Fu Hao’s Tomb • 468 bronze objects including 130 weapons, 23 bells, 27 knives, 4 mirrors, and 4 tigers or tiger heads • 755 jade objects • 63 stone objects • 5 ivory objects • 564 bone objects including nearly 500 bone hairpins and over 20 bone arrowheads • 11 pottery objects • 6,900 pieces of cowry shell Ivory beaker with turquoise From the tomb of the Shang dynasty queen Fu Hao, c, 1200 BCE.

31. Findings from Fu Hao’sTomb Bronze Pieces from Fu Hao Bronze Ding vessel       Height: 80.1cm, Weight: 128kg Bronze Ax  

32. Bronze Pieces from Fu Hao Covered container     Height: 60cm, Length: 88cm,                          Wine vessel     Height: 46.3cm, Weight: 16kg      Drinking vessel                          

33. Zhou Dynasty

34. In the Wei Valley in the west a new line of kings rose who superseded the Shang as supreme rulers in China. • • These were the Zhou, who developed a system of states with regular relationships between rulers and nobility. • • They defeated the Shang in about 1122 B.C.E. and destroyed the Shang capital Anyang. Taking over from the shang.

35. Although Zhou government differed from the Shang, the Zhou rulers adopted Shang culture • • One period merged into the other culturally. • • Because the first Zhou capital was located • in the Wei River valley until 771 B.C.E., • this part of the dynastic period is known as • the Western Zhou. government

36. An early Chou statesman explained the Zhou conquest by saying that the Mandate of Heaven (T'ien-ming) had been transferred from the wicked Shang to the virtuous Zhou. • • This articulated the Chinese belief that the right to govern was not absolute, but dependent on the moral qualities of a dynasty and on heaven's continued favor.

37. The Mandate of Heaven allowed new leaders to emerge and overthrow the ruling dynasty by claiming that the Mandate was lost. • The mandate consisted of three main elements: • 1. The leader must lead by ability and virtue • 2. The dynasty's leadership must be justified by succeeding generations • 3. The mandate could be revoked by negligence and abuse; the will of the people was important

38. In order to govern their expanded domain, • –the Zhou kings created a number of fiefs which were granted to relatives and those who aided in the conquest. • This system was more like European feudalism than what existed at the time of the Shang.

39. Zhou Feudalism (cont) • Land was given to the nobles in return for Contributing some of the revenue Preventing rebellion, and Leading soldiers to fight for the king • Society became divided into hereditary lords, hereditary aristocratic fighting men, and the lower classes, or peasants

40. Zhou society was also characterized by two important features: • – The family group and • – Possession of land by the noble family • Members of a family possessed a sense of unity in being descended from a common ancestor and bore his clan name, or hsing. Some notes on the social structure.

41. The religious element of this society lay in the • fact that all the families bearing the same surname formed a religious unit by adhering to the cult of the first ancestor, who they looked back to as the originator of the family name. • The feudal aristocracy from about 1927 to 771 B.C.E. paid regular tribute to the king, acknowledging his authority

42. Bronzesmiths • Jewelers • Jade workers • Embroiderers • Manufacturers of silk textiles • Silk will become one of the most sought after products of the ancient / early modern world. Specialization Silkworm cocoon

43. Specialization Bronze storage jar from Zhou Dynasty Silk making

44. Economic Exchange • Somewhat limited by the mountain ranges and deserts that stood between China and India and southwest Asia • Shipbuilding emerged during Zhou era and facilitated trade • Evidence of • Cowrie shells from Burma and the Maldives • Military technology from Mesopotamia • Jade from central Asia • Tin from Malay

45. New Technologies

46. During the Zhou era, the Chinese discovered how to make silk from the cocoons of silkworms. • Silk would become China’s most valuable export • Presaging the infamous “silk road.” New Technologies: Silk

47. Chinese artisans learned how to bind together long, thin strips of wood or bamboo to make books New Technologies: Bookbinding

48. New Technologies: Shang and Military Success • Shang ruling elites were able to monopolize production of bronze in the Yellow River Valley by controlling access to copper and tin ores • Allowed Shang forces to defeat Xia forces who were equipped with only stone, wood, and bone weapons • Shang nobles used bronze to make fittings for horse-drawn chariots

49. Shang were also able to exert military might over the Xia through bows Shang pictograph of composite bow New Technologies: Shang and Military Success

50. bronze production • Smelting copper • Smelting tin • Smelting iron ore and fashioning it into weaponry (and agricultural implements) New Technologies