Editing Shang dynasty (section)

== Late Shang at Anyang ==
{{main|Late Shang}}
[[File:Oracle bones pit.JPG|thumb|right|A pit at Yinxu containing oracle bones ceremonially buried after divination]]
The oldest extant direct records date from {{circa|1250&nbsp;BC|lk=no}} at Anyang, covering the reigns of the last nine Shang kings. The Shang had a fully developed system of writing, preserved on [[bronze inscriptions]] and a small number of other writings on pottery, jade and other stones, horn, etc., but most prolifically on oracle bones.{{sfnp|Qiu|2000|p=60}} The complexity and sophistication of this writing system indicates an earlier period of development, but direct evidence of such is still lacking. Other advances included the invention of many musical instruments and celestial observations of Mars and various comets by Shang astronomers.<ref>{{citation |surname=Kerr |given=Gordon |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=URV4e7IDaKYC&pg=PT3 |title=A Short History of China |publisher=Oldcastle |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-84243-969-2 |page=3}}</ref>

Their civilisation was based on agriculture and augmented by hunting and animal husbandry.<ref>{{citation |surname1=Beck |given1=Roger B. |title=World History: Patterns of Interaction |surname2=Black |given2=Linda |surname3=Krieger |given3=Larry S. |surname4=Naylor |given4=Phillip C. |surname5=Shabaka |given5=Dahia Ibo |publisher=McDougal Littell |year=1999 |isbn=0-395-87274-X |location=Evanston, Illinois}}</ref> In addition to war, the Shang practised [[human sacrifice]]. The majority of human sacrifice victims mentioned in Shang writings were war captives taken from the Qiang people, who lived to the northwest of the Shang.<ref>{{citation |surname=Shelach |given=Gideon |year=1996 |title=The Qiang and the Question of Human Sacrifice in the Late Shang Period |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/46734788 |journal=Asian Perspectives |volume=35 |issue=1 |pages=1–26 |via=ResearchGate}}</ref> Using skeletal isotope analysis, a group of Shang sacrifice victims at the [[Zhengzhou Shang City|Zhengzhou site]] was also found to most likely have been war captives.<ref>{{citation |surname1=Fang |given1=Fang |surname2=Liao |given2=Jingwen |surname3=Zeng |given3=Xiaomin |surname4=Zhang |given4=Juzhong |date=November 2022 |title=The Truth of Unusual Deaths under Military Expansion: Evidence from the Stable Isotopes of a Human Skull Ditch in the Capital City of the Early Shang Dynasty |journal=Genes |volume=13 |issue=11 |page=2077 |doi=10.3390/genes13112077 |doi-access=free |pmid=36360314 |issn=2073-4425|pmc=9690788}}</ref> Skulls of sacrificial victims have been found to be similar to modern Chinese ones (based on comparisons with remains from [[Hainan]] and [[Taiwan]]).<ref>{{citation |surname=Pietrusewsky |given=Michael |title=The Peopling of East Asia: Putting Together Archaeology, Linguistics and Genetics |year=2005 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-32242-3 |editor-surname=Sagart |editor-given=Laurent |page=203 |chapter=The physical anthropology of the Pacific, East Asia and Southeast Asia: a multivariate craniometric analysis |editor-surname2=Blench |editor-given2=Roger |editor-surname3=Sanchez-Mazas |editor-given3=Alicia}}</ref><ref>{{citation |surname=Howells |given=William |title=The Origins of Chinese Civilization |publisher=University of California Press |year=1983 |isbn=978-0-520-04229-2 |editor-surname=Keightley |editor-given=David N. |pages=312–313 |chapter=Origins of the Chinese People: Interpretations of recent evidence}}</ref> [[Cowry]] shells were also excavated at Anyang, suggesting trade with coast-dwellers, but there was very limited sea trade since China was isolated from other large civilisations during the Shang period.{{sfnp|Fairbank|Goldman|2006|p=35}} Trade relations and diplomatic ties with other formidable powers via the [[Silk Road]] and Chinese voyages to the Indian Ocean did not exist until the reign of [[Emperor Wu of Han|Emperor Wu]] during the Han dynasty (202&nbsp;BC{{snd}}221&nbsp;AD).{{sfnp|Sun|1989|pp=161–167}}{{sfnp|Chen|2002|pp=67–71}}

=== Court life ===
[[File:Shang dynasty inscribed tortoise plastron.jpg|thumb|upright=0.7|left|Tortoise shell with divinatory inscriptions]]
[[File:Tomb Fu Hao YinXu.jpg|thumb|right|Bronzeware from the excavated [[tomb of Fu Hao]]]]
At the excavated royal palace in Yinxu, large stone pillar bases were found along with [[rammed earth]] foundations and platforms, which according to Fairbank, were "as hard as cement".{{sfnp|Fairbank|Goldman|2006|p=33}} These foundations in turn originally supported 53 buildings of wooden [[timber framing|post-and-beam]] construction. In close proximity to the main palatial complex, there were underground pits used for storage, servants' quarters, and housing quarters.{{sfnp|Fairbank|Goldman|2006|p=33}}

Many Shang royal tombs had been tunnelled into and ravaged by grave robbers in ancient times, but in the spring of 1976, the discovery of Tomb 5 at Yinxu revealed a tomb that was not only undisturbed, but one of the most richly furnished Shang tombs that archaeologists had yet come across.{{sfnp|Thorp|1981|pp=239–240}} With over 200 bronze ritual vessels and 109 inscriptions of [[Fu Hao]]'s name, [[Zheng Zhenxiang]] and other archaeologists realised they had stumbled across the tomb of Fu Hao, Wu Ding's most famous consort also renowned as a military general, and mentioned in 170 to 180 oracle bone inscriptions.{{sfnp|Thorp|1981|pp=240, 245}} Along with bronze vessels, stoneware and pottery vessels, bronze weapons, jade figures and hair combs, and bone hairpins were found.{{sfnp|Thorp|1981|pp=242, 245}}{{sfnp|Li|1980|pp=393–394}}{{sfnp|Lerner|Murck|Ford|Hearn|1985|p=77}} The archaeological team argue that the large assortment of weapons and ritual vessels in her tomb correlate with the oracle bone accounts of her military and ritual activities.{{sfnp|Thorp|1981|p=245}}

The capital was the centre of court life. Over time, court rituals to appease spirits developed, and in addition to his secular duties, the king would serve as the head of the [[ancestor worship]] cult. Often, the king would even perform oracle bone divinations himself, especially near the end of the dynasty. Evidence from excavations of the royal tombs indicates that royalty were buried with articles of value, presumably for use in the afterlife. Perhaps for the same reason, hundreds of commoners, who may have been slaves, were buried alive with the royal corpse.

[[File:Late Shang Jiaguwen about horses.png|thumb|Late Shang oracle bone inscriptions about breeding horses.<ref>{{citation |surname1=Yuan |given1=Jing |given2=Rowan |surname2=Flad |title=Two issues concerning domesticated horses in China |journal=Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities |volume=75 |year=2003 |pages=110–126}}</ref>]]
A line of hereditary Shang kings ruled over much of northern China, and Shang troops fought frequent wars with neighbouring settlements and nomadic herdsmen from the inner Asian steppes. The Shang king, in his oracular divinations, repeatedly showed concern about the barbarians living outside of the civilised regions, which made up the centre of Shang territory.{{Clarify|reason=are tu areas all of Shang or only the Shang heartland?|date=September 2010}} In particular, the group living in the [[Yan Mountains]] were regularly mentioned as hostile to the Shang.{{sfnp|Sun|2006}}

Apart from their role as the head military commanders, Shang kings also asserted their social supremacy by acting as the high priests of society and leading the divination ceremonies.{{sfnp|Ebrey|Walthall|Palais|2006|p=14}} As the oracle bone texts reveal, the Shang kings were viewed as the best qualified members of society to offer sacrifices to their royal ancestors and to the high god Di, who in their beliefs was responsible for the rain, wind, and thunder.{{sfnp|Ebrey|Walthall|Palais|2006|p=14}}

The King appointed officials to manage certain activities, usually in a specified region. These included agricultural official, pastors, dog officers, and guards. These officers led their own retinues in the conduct of their duties, and some grew more independent and emerged as rulers of their own. There was a basic system of bureaucracy in place, with references to positions such as the "Many Dog officers", "Many horse officers", the "Many Artisans", the "Many Archers" or court titles like "Junior Servitor for Cultivation" or "Junior Servitor for labourers". Members of the royal family would be assigned personal estates; the king provided them with pre-determined public works such as walling cities in their regions, distributed materials and issued commands to them.<ref>{{citation<!--university course materials--> |surname=Eno |given=Robert |year=2010 |ref={{sfnref|Eno|2010b}} |title=History G380 |chapter=Shang Society |hdl=2022/23464 |publisher=Indiana University}}</ref> In turn, their estates belonged ultimately to the king's land, and they paid tribute to the king as well as reporting to him about conquered lands.<ref>{{citation |title=The Oracle Bone Inscriptions from Huayuanzhuang East |surname=Schwartz |given=Adam C. |publisher=De Gruyter |isbn=978-1-5015-0533-1 |year=2020 |hdl=20.500.12657/23217}}</ref> More distant rulers were known by titles translated as marquess or count,<!--The Chinese titles should be mentioned here. Clearly they didn't use English words from thousands of years later--> who sometimes provided tribute and support to the Shang King in exchange for military aid and augury services. However these alliances were unstable, as indicated by the frequent royal divinations about the sustainability of such relations.{{sfnp|Keightley|1999|pp=272–273, 286}}

The existence of records regarding enemy kills, prisoners and booty taken point to the existence of a proto-bureaucracy of written documents.{{sfnp|Keightley|1999|pp=287}}

=== Religion ===
{{main|Religion of the Shang dynasty}}

[[File:Shang bronze masks, 16-14th.JPG|thumb|Shang-era face masks made of bronze, {{circa|16th–14th centuries&nbsp;BC|lk=no}}]]
Shang religious rituals featured divination and sacrifice. The degree to which [[shamanism]] was a central aspect of Shang religion is a subject of debate.{{sfnp|Chang|1994}}{{sfnp|Keightley|1998}}

There were six main recipients of sacrifice:{{sfnp|Keightley|1999|pp=253–254}}
# Di, the "High God",
# Natural forces, such as that of the sun and mountains, 
# Former lords, deceased humans who had been added to the dynastic pantheon, 
# Pre-dynastic ancestors, 
# Dynastic ancestors, and 
# Royal wives who were ancestors of the present king.

The Shang believed that their ancestors held power over them and performed divination rituals to secure their approval for planned actions.{{sfnp|Keightley|2004}} Divination involved cracking a turtle carapace or ox scapula to answer a question, and to then record the response to that question on the bone itself.{{sfnp|Chang|1994}} It is unknown what criteria the diviners used to determine the response, but it is believed to be the sound or pattern of the cracks on the bone.{{citation needed|date=February 2013}}

The Shang also seem to have believed in an afterlife, as evidenced by the elaborate burial tombs built for deceased rulers. Often "carriages, utensils, sacrificial vessels, [and] weapons" would be included in the tomb.{{sfnp|Smith|1961}} A king's burial involved the burial of up to a few hundred humans and horses as well to accompany the king into the afterlife, in some cases even numbering four hundred.{{sfnp|Smith|1961}} Finally, tombs included ornaments such as jade, which the Shang may have believed to protect against decay or confer immortality.

The Shang religion was highly bureaucratic and meticulously ordered. Oracle bones contained descriptions of the date, ritual, person, ancestor, and questions associated with the divination.{{sfnp|Chang|1994}} Tombs displayed highly ordered arrangements of bones, with groups of skeletons laid out facing the same direction.

=== Bronze working ===
{{Main|Chinese ritual bronzes}}
Chinese bronze casting and pottery advanced during the Shang, with bronze typically being used for ritually significant, rather than primarily utilitarian, items. As early as {{circa|1500&nbsp;BC|lk=no}}, the early Shang dynasty engaged in large-scale production of bronzeware vessels and weapons.{{sfnp|Ebrey|Walthall|Palais|2006|p=17}} This production required a large labour force that could handle the mining, refining, and transportation of the necessary copper, tin, and lead ores. This in turn created a need for official managers that could oversee both labourers and skilled artisans and craftsmen.{{sfnp|Ebrey|Walthall|Palais|2006|p=17}} The Shang royal court and aristocrats required a vast number of different bronze vessels for various ceremonial purposes and events of religious divination.{{sfnp|Ebrey|Walthall|Palais|2006|p=17}} Ceremonial rules even decreed how many bronze containers of each type a noble of a certain rank could own. With the increased amount of bronze available, the army could also better equip itself with an assortment of bronze weaponry. Bronze was also used for the fittings of spoke-wheeled [[Chariot (Ancient China)|chariots]], which appeared in China around 1200&nbsp;BC.{{sfnp|Ebrey|Walthall|Palais|2006|p=14}}

<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px" class="center">
File:Dinastia shang, tipode ding biansato, xiii-xii sec. ac.JPG|A ''ding'' dating from the Shang
File:HouMuWuDingFullView.jpg|The Shang-era [[Houmuwu ding|Houmuwu ''ding'']], the heaviest piece of bronze work found in China so far
File:Liu Ding.jpg|A late Shang-era ''ding'' with ''[[taotie]]'' motif
File:Gu wine vessel from the Shang Dynasty.jpg|A ''gu'' ritual bronze vessel used to hold wine
</gallery>

=== Military ===
{{main|Military of the Shang dynasty}}
[[File:Shang Chariot Burial 04.jpg|thumb|War chariots at Yinxu. Shang chariots were introduced {{circa|1200 &nbsp;BC|lk=no}} through the northern steppes, probably from the area of the [[Karasuk culture]],<ref>{{citation |title=Chariots in Early China: Origins, cultural interaction, and identity |year=2013 |publisher=BAR |surname=Wu |given=Hsiao-yun |isbn=978-1-4073-1065-7}}</ref> or [[deer stones culture]].<ref>{{citation |surname=Rawson |given=Jessica |date=June 2020 |title=Chariotry and Prone Burials: Reassessing Late Shang China's Relationship with Its Northern Neighbours |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342651041 |journal=Journal of World Prehistory |volume=33 |issue=2 |pages=135–168 |doi=10.1007/s10963-020-09142-4 |s2cid=254751158 |doi-access=free}}</ref>{{sfnp|Shaughnessy|1988}}<ref>{{citation |surname=Barbieri-Low |given=Anthony J. |date=February 2000 |title=Wheeled Vehicles in the Chinese Bronze Age (c. 2000–741 B.C.) |url=https://sino-platonic.org/complete/spp099_wheeled_vehicles_china.pdf |journal=Sino-Platonic Papers |volume=99}}</ref>]]
The Shang dynasty entered into prolonged conflicts with northern frontier tribes called the ''[[Guifang]]''.<ref>{{citation |surname=Creel |given=Herrlee G. |year=1970 |title=The Origins of Statecraft in China |publisher=University of Chicago Press |page=232}}</ref><ref>{{citation |surname=Taskin |given=V. S. |series=Материалы по истории кочевых народов в Китае III-V вв <!--Russian series title is more useful for verification than the English translation. Unfortunately this parameter doesn't exist: |trans-series=Materials on the history of nomadic tribes in China in the 3rd–5th centuries--> |volume=3 |script-title=ru:Мужуны |trans-title=Mujuns |location=Moscow |publisher=[[Nauka (publisher)|Nauka]] |year=1992 |page=10 |isbn=5-02-016746-0 |language=ru}}</ref>{{sfnp|Keightley|1999|p=269}}

Bronze weapons were an integral part of Shang society. Shang infantry were armed with a variety of stone and bronze weaponry, including spears, pole-axes, pole-based dagger-axes, composite bows, and bronze or leather helmets.{{sfnp|Wang|1993}}{{sfnp|Sawyer|Sawyer|1994|p=35}}

Although the Shang depended upon the military skills of their nobility, Shang rulers could mobilise the masses of town-dwelling and rural commoners as conscript labourers and soldiers for both campaigns of defence and conquest. Aristocrats and other state rulers were obligated to furnish their local garrisons with all necessary equipment, armour, and armaments. The Shang king maintained a force of about a thousand troops at his capital and would personally lead this force into battle.{{sfnp|Sawyer|Sawyer|1994|pp=33–34}} A rudimentary military bureaucracy was also needed in order to muster forces ranging from three to five thousand troops for border campaigns to thirteen thousand troops for suppressing rebellions.

<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px" perrow="4">
File:CMOC Treasures of Ancient China exhibit - bronze battle axe.jpg|A ''yue'' bronze axe with head motif, dated to the Shang
File:Shang dynasty curved bronze knives with turquoise inlays and animal pommel. 12th-11th century BCE.jpg|Shang dynasty curved bronze knives with turquoise inlays and animal pommel. 12th–11th centuries&nbsp;BC. Such knives may be the result of contacts with northern people.<ref>{{citation |surname1=So |given1=Jenny F. |url=https://ia601307.us.archive.org/28/items/tradersraiderson00soje/tradersraiderson00soje.pdf |title=Traders and raiders on China's northern frontier |surname2=Bunker |given2=Emma C. |year=1995 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |isbn=978-0-295-97473-6 |location=Seattle |pages=35–36 |quote=Enough northern bronze knives, tools, and fittings have been recovered from royal burials at the Shang capital of Anyang to suggest that people of northern heritage mingled with the Chinese in their capital city. These artifacts must have entered Shang domain through trade, war, intermarriage, or other circumstances.}}</ref>
</gallery>