Shang dynasty

Shang 商
c. 1600 BCE–c. 1046 BCE
Dominant mode of production	Slavery
Government	Monarchy
History
• Established	c. 1600 BCE
• Dissolution	c. 1046 BCE
Area
• Total	1,250,000 km²

The Shang dynasty was the second Chinese dynasty and the first dynasty with direct written records. It bean around 1500 BCE. Traditional Chinese historiography places the Shang dynasty at 1766 BC, but modern archeological investigations cannot confirm this date.

Structure

The Shang state was a federation of people. In other words, there was at the center of the system the Shang ruling family, followed by their blood relations, and then people who were not blood relations to that family but were part of the Shang state. The Shang dynasty spread relatively far, and the federated people that were part of this state played a primordial role in its upkeep and border security. As such, due to the size of the Shang empire, reports, letters and communication from the king to his subordinates would be sent in writing, which characterizes the Shang as a literate state.

Monarchy

The Shang dynasty had a novel way of handling succession. In their time, life expectancy was not very long—one could hope to live up to 30 on average. It was thus very common that the Shang king would die before his oldest son was old enough to succeed him. Because of this, the kingship passed from oldest to youngest brother. Then the eldest son of the eldest king would take over, and the process would repeat. 26 kings were recorded during the Shang period, which lasted for around 500 years (an average of one king every twenty years).

The Shang also built royal capitals, which was a continuation of the Xia palace architecture on rammed earth structures. However, they didn't seem to stay in them a very long time: they had nine capitals during their 500 years rule. These buildings were bigger and more decorated than their Xia predecessors, likely as a way to display their wealth and power.

Economy

The Shang state was quite elaborate and practiced division of labour from early on. Bronze objects, for example, were made with casts in which the molten bronze was poured. Their bronze industry -- mining the metal, smelting, refining, blending the metals together, the design of the objects, etc. was all organized by the Shang state and required different laborers and artisans for each step of the process. This involved the organisation of a consequent number of people as well as running activities at a number of sites (the mines, for example, were not located in the same place as the furnaces).

This elaborate, organized system of production required that the Shang state had a capacity to sustain its people, e.g. feeding them, clothing them, housing them, etc. This is how archeologists know that the Shang also had an elaborate taxation system, which also appeared on oracle bones. Tributes were paid by subordinates who were part of this federation to the Shang royal family and formed the basis of taxation revenue. Furthermore, the organisation of the mining industry further established the authority of the royal family and their kin.

The Shang practiced slavery, which was the first major mode of production in the world and allowed them to sustain this elaborate society and state. Slaves, as was usual in the earliest incarnation of the institution, were usually prisoners of war and criminals.

Decline

The people not under Shang authority were a constant concern and often came up in oracle bones. Since the Shang recorded every outcome of oracle bone divination, these records show that there were frequent devastating raids from outside populations. Notably, people were recorded as being taken away as slaves during these raids.

Security was a critical function of the Shang state but eventually found itself in a contradiction. The Shang dynasty needed to deploy and maintain soldiers in the border regions, where the tributary non-Shang people lived, so that they could receive their tribute and not have it stolen during raids. Over time, this created resentment from these populations, especially when security started breaking down and raids became more frequent.

This unrest eventually boiled over to rebellion, when the tributary peoples to the Shang overthrew the dynasty and established the Zhou dynasty as their successors.

Culture

The Shang dynasty has left many written records about their life, as they performed oracle bone divination (jiǎgǔ, 甲骨). In this practice, people would ask a question to the royal family's ancestors on either oxen shoulder blade bone or the underside of turtle shells. The question would be carved on the bone by a diviner, the class of people who could read and write. The bone would then be poked by a sharp, heated implement during daily ceremonies, which caused it to crack. The way the bone cracked was then interpreted as an answer by the ancestors to the question carved into the bone. The Shang took their written records even further and kept records on the results of the divination. This means they kept record of not only the questions, but also the answers and actual outcome of the divinations.

Oracle bone divination was so commonplace in the Shang period that to this day, tens of thousands of bones have been dug up.

Ken Hammond notes that these divination rituals were important to maintain the power of the dynasty and diviners, but the bronze culture was also equally important. Bronze cutlery (such as wine cups, plates or pans) were used to present offerings to the ruler's ancestors. After these offerings and sacrifices, which took place in great halls, the king would offer the "physical remains" (the offerings that had not been consumed by the ancestors) to the populace in great feasts, as a way to remind the people of his wealth and power.