Changes

*''Chinese/Japanese'': 商 ''(Shang / Shou)''

*''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.<ref name=brief>Conrad Schirokauer, et al, ''A Brief History of Chinese and Japanese Civilizations'', Fourth Edition, Cengage Learning (2012), 7-8.</ref> 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.<ref>Albert Craig, ''The Heritage of Chinese Civilization'', Third Edition, Prentice Hall (2011), 4-5.</ref> Though long believed merely legendary, most scholars today agree there is enough evidence to believe that the Shang actually existed.

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.<ref name=brief>Conrad Schirokauer, et al, ''A Brief History of Chinese and Japanese Civilizations'', Fourth Edition, Cengage Learning (2012), 7-8.</ref> 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.<ref>Albert Craig, ''The Heritage of Chinese Civilization'', Third Edition, Prentice Hall (2011), 4-5.</ref> Though long believed merely legendary, finds of oracle bones at Anyang in [[1900]]<ref>Gallery labels, Royal Ontario Museum.[https://www.flickr.com/photos/toranosuke/48532558337/sizes/l/]</ref> and other finds since then have led most scholars to 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.<ref name=brief/>

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.<ref name=brief/>