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Shang dynasty
Chinese royal dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BC) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Shang dynasty (Chinese: 商朝; pinyin: Shāng cháo), also known as the Yin dynasty (殷代; Yīn dài), was a Chinese royal dynasty that ruled in the Yellow River valley during the second millennium BC, traditionally succeeding the Xia dynasty and followed by the Western Zhou dynasty. The classic account of the Shang comes from texts such as the Book of Documents, Bamboo Annals and Records of the Grand Historian. Modern scholarship dates the dynasty between the 16th and 11th centuries BC, with more agreement surrounding the end date than beginning date.
Shang | |||||||||||
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c. 1600 BC–c. 1046 BC | |||||||||||
![]() Approximate territory of the Shang dynasty within present-day China | |||||||||||
Capital | |||||||||||
Common languages | Old Chinese | ||||||||||
Religion | Shang state religion | ||||||||||
Government | Monarchy | ||||||||||
King | |||||||||||
• c. 1600 BC | Tai Yi | ||||||||||
• c. 1250 – 1191 BC | Wu Ding | ||||||||||
• c. 1075 – 1046 BC | King Zhou | ||||||||||
Historical era | Bronze Age | ||||||||||
• Established | c. 1600 BC | ||||||||||
c. 1046 BC | |||||||||||
Area | |||||||||||
c. 1122 BC[1] | 1,250,000 km2 (480,000 sq mi) | ||||||||||
Currency |
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Today part of | China |
Shang | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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![]() "Shang" in oracle bone script (top left), bronze script (top right), seal script (bottom left), and regular script (bottom right) forms | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 商 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hanyu Pinyin | Shāng | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Alternative Chinese name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 殷 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hanyu Pinyin | Yīn | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Shang dynasty is the earliest dynasty of traditional Chinese history firmly supported by archaeological evidence. Excavation at the last Shang capital Yinxu, near modern-day Anyang, uncovered eleven major royal tombs and the foundations of palaces and ritual sites, containing weapons of war and remains from both animal and human sacrifices. Tens of thousands of bronze, jade, stone, bone, and ceramic artefacts have been found.
The Anyang site has yielded the earliest known body of Chinese writing, mostly divinations inscribed on oracle bones – usually turtle shells or ox scapulae. More than 20,000 were discovered in the initial scientific excavations during the 1920s and 1930s, and over four times as many have been found since. The inscriptions provide critical insight into many topics from the politics, economy, and religious practices to the art and medicine of the early stages of Chinese history.[2]