Shang Dynasty

A bronze ding from the Shang Dynasty (11th c. BCE). Santa Barbara Museum of Art

Dates: c. 1750-1100 BCE?
Chinese/Japanese: 商 (Shang / Shou)

The Shang Dynasty was the second of China's semi-legendary Three Dynasties, and the earliest period from which written evidence is extant - mainly in the form of oracle bones. Writing is believed to have emerged as an indigenous development in China towards the end of this period, likely little earlier than 1200 BCE.^[1] The period is also known for its bronzes. Evidence of Shang era walled cities have been discovered at Anyang (a short distance northeast of Luoyang, along the Wei River), and elsewhere.^[2] Though long believed merely legendary, most scholars today agree there is enough evidence to believe that the Shang actually existed.

Excavations at Erligang in northwestern China have revealed a complex society, which produced intricate bronze works, and which traded or otherwise disseminated its bronzes across a rather wide area. The Shang overlapped in time with a culture indicated by finds at Erlitou, near Luoyang; whether Erlitou was a city of the Xia Dynasty - the dominant dynasty which according to legend preceded the Shang - or of simply some other, separate, culture which the Shang then conquered or subsumed, is unclear.^[1]

Some sources suggest that it was the use of war chariots - the technology itself, and the tactics for their use coming from the Near East - which allowed the Shang to subdue and unite the lands they did, in order to establish the dynasty.^[3]

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Rulers of Shang

Preceded by:
Xia Dynasty

Shang Dynasty
c. 1750-1100 BCE?

Succeeded by:
Zhou Dynasty

References

K.C. Chang, Art, Myth, and Ritual, Harvard University Press (1983), 132.

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Conrad Schirokauer, et al, A Brief History of Chinese and Japanese Civilizations, Fourth Edition, Cengage Learning (2012), 7-8.
↑ Albert Craig, The Heritage of Chinese Civilization, Third Edition, Prentice Hall (2011), 4-5.
↑ Walter McNeill, "The Changing Shape of World History," in Ross Dunn (ed.), The New World History, Bedford/St. Martin's (2000), 152.

[brief-1] 1.0 ^1.1 Conrad Schirokauer, et al, A Brief History of Chinese and Japanese Civilizations, Fourth Edition, Cengage Learning (2012), 7-8.

[2] Albert Craig, The Heritage of Chinese Civilization, Third Edition, Prentice Hall (2011), 4-5.

[3] Walter McNeill, "The Changing Shape of World History," in Ross Dunn (ed.), The New World History, Bedford/St. Martin's (2000), 152.

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