Saturday, September 15, 2018

The Three Ancient Dynasties


The Xia Dynasty:


Traditional Legends of the Sage-Rulers


  • according to Chinese myths human beings had their origin in parasites 
  • these were on the body of the Creator
  • after his death a succession of sage rulers introduced inventions institutions

  •  the first sage was Fuxi – he domesticated animals and instituted marriage.

  •  the next sage ruler was Shennong – he introduced agriculture, medicine, and trade.

  • next sage-ruler - Huangdi, the Yellow Emperor (invented writing, ceramics, & the calendar).

  • centuries later came the next ruler, Emperor Yao 
  • he introduced flood controls
  • he decided that his son was unworthy to be his successor
  • instead he chose a humble sage called Shun.

  • the reigns of Yao and Shun are considered to be the Golden Age of Chinese history.
  • these acts of abdication are examples of a tradition of selflessness
  • it questioned whether hereditary rule is desirable

  • Shun awarded the succession to his faithful minister Yu
  • it is at this point that China’s prehistory begins to merge with history.

  • Yu, whose reign began in 2205 BCE allegedly founded the Xia dynasty
  • his rule marks the end of the period of righteous abdication
  • the principle of dynastic rule now falls under moral justification


China's Ancient Dynasties:


  • the traditional history of China includes the three ancient dynasties: 
  • a) the Xia (2205-1766 BCE),
  • b) the Shang (1766-1050 BCE) 
  • c) the Zhou (1050-256)


  • technically history begins with recorded history; 
  •  pre-history is the period for which there are no written records.

  • up until the 1920s scholars believed that the first two (Xia & Shang) were legendary.
  • with the discovery of the Shang the outlook has changed 
  • perhaps the Xia actually did exist as a legitimate dynasty
  • it is purely conjecture at this point.


  • excavations of Anyang uncovered the ruins of a city
  • it was surrounded by a wall that had been a capital of the Shang
  • other cities have since been excavated 

  • the discovery of the "oracle bones" have led to further speculation 
  • this is about the origins of the Chinese language and the emergence of religion
  • it has also given scholars a good understanding of the Shang Dynasty.



The Archaeological Records of the Xia Dynasty: 


  • the Xia dynasty may have existed between approximately 2200 and 1750 BC
  • this is along the Yellow River near Luoyang and 
  • to the North of this area, in the Fen River valley.

  • the pottery discoveries suggest that the Xia culture derived from Longshan.

  • the most important site identified with the Xia is Erlitou 
  • in Henan palace-like buildings and tombs have been uncovered 
  • here the earliest bronze vessels have been found. 



  • this excavation of 1922 suggests that Erlitou may have been a capital of the Xia dynasty.
  • the Erlitou culture was widespread in the region of northwest Henan.
  • it was a direct successor to the Longshan Black Pottery culture 



The Shang Dynasty: 


  • between 3500 & 2000 BCE farming communities got closer to each other
  • they developed features characteristic of civilization
  • special craftsmen produced pottery drinking cups, jars and bowls
  • some were on stems or three legs.
  • these were used for religious ceremonies 
  • jade was of great importance & was widely distributed
  • often the rulers were buried with them.


  • soon competition led to warfare
  • it also led to the building of large defensive walls made of stamped earth.
  • around 1800 BCE most of northern China was united under the Shang dynasty.



The State Capitals: Archaeological Findings


  • the second of the ancient dynasties was the Shang (1766-1122 BCE.)

  • it was once believed that the three ancient dynasties were successive
  • but the Shang dynasty was already a strong entity before it overthrew the Xia.
  • the three dynasties overlapped both in time and in territory.

  • the Shang state had a series of capitals 
  • Zhengzhou and Anyang were the most important ones

  • Zhengzhou was the capital in the early or middle period of the dynasty
  • Anyang was occupied around 1300-1050 BCE.

  • at Zhengzhou, a city wall of about 4 miles long enclosed a large settlement
  • the wall and the buildings inside the wall use the “stamped earth” technique.

  • discoveries indicate that Shang society was highly organized and socially stratified
  • it confirms a similar impression made from the findings at Anyang

  • outside Anyang, at Xiaotun they discovered a ceremonial and administrative centre .

  • at Xibeigang, two miles north of Xiaotun, 11 large cruciform graves have been found 
  • they may belong to the 11 Shang monarchs, recorded as having reigned at Anyang.

  • in 1928 archaeologists began the scientific excavations at Anyang.
  • after 1950, the earlier Shang capital at Zhengzhou was uncovered.

  • in these Shang capital cities were royal palaces and upper-class residence
  • they were of the post-and-beam construction on stamped-earth platforms,
  • they were  built in the basic architectural styles of Beijing’s Forbidden City.

  • Anyang had the stamped-earth foundations, as hard as cement
  • of 53 buildings, many were of stone-pillar bases

  • subterranean pit houses nearby were used as storage
  • the aristocracy had the services of artisans
  • artisans  were specialists in the art of bronze metallurgy, pottery, and crafts. 



The Shang State:


  • the Shang rulers performed an important ritual role
  • they were also involved with administering the state
  • they were served by officials who had specialized functions.

  • the rulers were supported by aristocratic clans (families)
  • they had kinship or marriage connections.
  • aristocratic society practised military skills and fought using horse chariots.

  • the king had the right to demand services from the clan leaders
  • these included labour services and military duties.

  • Shang rulers & aristocratic supporters waged aggressive campaigns against their neighbours. - in this way, they were able to obtain prisoners and loot. 

  • the Shang rulers established new towns and the opening of new lands for farming. 
  • they extended their authority along the Yellow River to the Wei valley and to the north.



  • the Shang also established relations with a state called Shu
  • this may refer to a culture that had developed independently in Sichuan. 

  • the economic basis of the Shang was agriculture,
  • they cultivated millet - it was their most important crop

  • the area of the North China Plain was warmer and more moist than today
  • the area was well forested.



The Oracle Bones:


  • much of the information on Shang society comes from their inscriptions 
  • they were made on the shoulder blades of oxen (scapulimancy) 
  • they were less common on the shells of tortoises (plastromancy)
  • here was a time when they were referred to as “dragon bones” 
  • they were grounded up for medicinal uses.

  • in 1899 it was noted that Chinese pharmacists were selling these 
  • they were called  “dragon bones” and were inscribed in archaic characters.
  • by the late 1920’s private buyers had traced these “oracle bones” to a site near Anyang


  • in 1928 archaeologists began scientific excavations of the last Shang capital at Anyang
  • this continued until Japan attacked China in 1937
  • after 1950 an earlier Shang capital was found near the present day Zhengzhou.

  • these Shang capital cities contain royal palaces
  • they had upper-class residences of post-and-beam construction on stamped-earth platforms,

  • at Anyang, they found the foundations of 53 buildings with subterranean pit houses
  • they were probably uses as storage houses and service quarters.

  • the aristocracy seemed to have made used of artisans
  • they were specialists in the development of bronze metallurgy, pottery, and other crafts
  • the bronzes were never surpassed in craftsmanship

  • the Shang king was served by diviners (shamans ?) who handled the writing system 
  • they took the auspices by scapulimancy
  • by putting a fire to the bones, cracks were created
  • these were interpreted as the advice of the ancestors
  • then, they would inscribe the advice on the bones

  • much of the information we have on the Shang society comes from these inscriptions. -
  • over 150,000 fragments of Shang “oracle bones” have been identified
  • these have provided a major source of evidence about the Shang state.

  • the discovery of these oracle bones bones was at the turn of the 20th century 
  • these inscriptions are records of divination, performed by the kings of the Shang Dynasty.


  • heating the bones with fire would produce cracks on the bones which were "read" by diviners
  • this practice had its origins during the Neolithic period
  • during the Shang period only flat bones (from tortoises and cattle)were used. 

  • the shape of the cracks were given interpretations -
  • they indicated a deity's reply to a question posed - 
  • the king made the final prognostication
  • the inscriptions (originating around 1250 BCE) was a record of the process

  • a large majority of the 48,000 currently published inscriptions deal with sacrificial rites
  • the oracle bones offer a variety of topics
  • they offer scholars and historians knowledge of Shang society and culture
  • questions were addressed to deities, nature gods,and ancestral gods 
  • it was to seek answers to the following topics:
  • a) weather conditions, 
  • b) astronomic phenomena, 
  • c) military campaigns, 
  • d) political alliances, 
  • e) the ruler's illnesses, 
  • f) the consort's childbirth, 
  • g) the establishment of new settlements 
  • h) the prospects of hunting.


  • the practice of divination of this sort was abandoned by the Zhou kings
  • this probably indicated the confidence of making decisions without the help of deities.

  • many of the inscriptions relate to future events
  • they have been translated as questions addressed to an oracle
  • recently it has been argued that the inscriptions are not questions
  • they are statements or predictions
  • the divination process formed part of the sacrificial rite.

  • once the bones were inscribed, a heated bronze tool was applied
  • the cracks that appeared were interpreted as a response to the question or prediction.

  • some of these inscriptions related to the actions of the king and his allies
  • this gave scholars information about the organization of the Shang state.


  • the inscriptions use a vocabulary of more than 3,000 different graphs and 
  • this includes a dating system based on a 10-day week and a 60-day cycle.

  • the bones reveal to us several things:
  • a) that the Shang aristocracy lived a superior life,
  • b) they fought using horse chariots, 
  • c) they hunted for sport
  • d) they performed rites and ceremonies, 
  • e) they were served by scribes and artisans
  • f) they were supported by the agriculture of the surrounding village peasants
  • these peasants  lived in these subterranean dwelling pits
  • Shang society was highly stratified.



here some examples of inscriptions: 

The Power of Di:

a) “Will Di perhaps send down drought upon us?”

b) “Will Di, bring disaster to our harvest? Will Di not bring disaster to our harvest? The king prognosticated, saying, “Di shall not bring disaster”

These inscriptions illustrate that no subject concerned the king more than the success of the crops, rightly so, since Shang society was agricultural.

Other examples that illustrate the power of Di:

c) “Will Di perhaps bring an end to this city?”

d) “If the king establishes a walled town, will Di show approval?”

e) “Shall we sacrifice two dogs to Di’s envoy Wind?”


Natural Deities:

f) “Shall we make a burnt offering to Cloud Di?”

g) “If we, perhaps, perform a fire sacrifice to Snow, will there be a great rain?”

h) “Shall we pray for harvest to the Yellow River?”

i)“Is it the Yellow River that is harming the king?”


Ancestral Spirits:

j) “Is the High Ancestor Shang-jia who is preventing the rain?”

k) “Should we protect the king’s eyes against Grandmother Ji”

l) “Is it Father Yi who is hurting the king’s tooth?”


Military Affairs, Hunting, Agriculture, & the King’s Ritual Leadership:

m) The king made cracks and divined: We shall hunt at Ji; coming and going there shall be no disaster. The king prognosticated, saying, “It is extremely auspicious.” Acting on this we captured 41 foxes and 8 hornless deer.”

n) “The king shall go and lead the multitudes in planning grain at Qiong.”

Examples are from Robert Eno, “Deities and Ancestors in Early Oracle Inscriptions” in Donald S. Lopez, ed. Religions of China in Practice, (Princeton: NJ, Princeton University Press, 1996), pp. 41-51

The Shang Bronzes:


  • the Neolithic period saw a rise in the production of art in general
  • this offers us a glimpse into the spiritual world of the pre-historic-population
  • the findings that are most prized and highly regarded are the bronze vessels and implements
  • many were made for ceremonial purposes.
  • knowledge of metallurgy was a gradual process in China 

  • it was the king who controlled the production and use of bronze
  • the extraction of metal ore and the manufacture of bronze objects were a major industry,
  • it was an industry that employed a large amount of skilled craftsmen.

  • a great level of sophistication was reached which produced complex bronze vessels
  • this was centred at the Erlitou site
  • large quantities of them was not achieved until about 1500 BCE.


  • metal production was a late-comer to China
  • other civilizations had already established their metallurgical industries
  • these were in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Indus valley 
  • but in China the scale of production exceeded those of other civilization.

  • the technology required sophisticated specialization
  • these were mining, casting into ingots, transportation, and casting into vessels
  • this could only be achieved by a state-run industry under the auspices of the Shang court.
  • both Anyang and Zhengzhou were production sites during the early period.

  • bronze was used at various times for weapons, armour, and chariot fitting
  • it was also used for ceremonial rituals.

  • the earliest bronze vessels have been found at Elliott
  • important finds of bronze vessels were made at Zhengzhou and Anyang
  • these were the two Shang capitals.

  • these vessels had a ritual function - for sacrificial meats heating wine

  • many of these vessels are decorated with stylized surface decorations
  • he most famous motif is the taotie - a monster mask intended to avert evil.


  • jade was also used for ritual purposes, as it had been at the Longshan culture.

  • two jade forms were common: 
  • a pierced disk known as bi
  • a tube of square cross section known as cong.

  • Shang kings were buried in large pit
  • it would require the labour of hundreds of men to excavate.

  • their corpses were placed in wooded coffins & were surrounded by grave goods
  • on the ramps, leading to the bottom of the pit lay human bodies and horses
  • these human victims,( prisoners of war) had sometimes been beheaded.


Fu Hao:


  • Fu Hao, the consort of a Shang King,Wuding (r. 1324-1266 BCE), died in 1250 BCE, 
  • her tomb was discovered intact in 1976


  • it contained about 200 bronze vessels, some in the shape of animals

  • also 1600 objects were buried with her 


  • this included jade , pottery, bronzes, cowrie shells, ivory beakers etc … 


  • also 6 dogs and 16 men, women, and children were buried with her.

  • the bronzes in her tomb are larger than those found in the graves of aristocrats
  • this suggested that Shang society was stratified. 
  • like many of the king’s wives (most wives were relegated to just domestic duties), 
  • she played an important role in government 
  • she was an army general and led many campaigns.



Shang Religion:


  • the oracle bones, bronze vessels, and burial practices gives us insight into the Shang religion.

  • the Shang people worshipped many deities
  • most of them were royal ancestors
  • some were nature spirits
  • others were probably derived from popular myths or local cults.

  • it had been an assumption that the Shang religion had a single supreme deity 
  • he is referred to as Di, part ancestral figure and part a natural force
  • he presided at the apex of the Shang pantheon.

  • recent studies has rejected the idea of Di as a high god
  • it seems in the Shang religion Di was the term used to refer collectively to “the gods” 
  • or he was some impartial deity with the exclusive right to give out orders to other powers
  • it was only under the Zhou that the idea of a supreme god emerges.

  • from the tombs it is clear that the Shang believed in an afterlife
  • divination may have been addressed to departed ancestors.



The Bureaucratization of Religion


  • the Shang people regulated their relations to deities according to a set of rules
  • five standard rites were performed in a sequence for each of the major ancestors
  • communicating with them was not random
  • it was scheduled and regulated according to their 10 day week.

  • as seen with the oracle bones divination was highly regulated
  • it had specific set questions, 
  • it had careful recordings of questions and answers
  • it was carefully preserved 
  • the regularization became more pronounced as the dynasty continued along
  • this tendency became ever more regulated with the next dynasty


The Fall of the Shang


  • the details surrounding the collapse of the Shang are somewhat obscured
  • very little is known about the ruler prior to the last Shang ruler - Zhouxin
  • he is generally presented as the ultimate monster leader.

  • the Shang state seemed have decreased in size
  • the names of many former allies and dependencies appear often in the early descriptions\
  • but they  disappear in the inscriptions of the last 50 years of Shang rule
  • this goes from from 600 names to 7
  • the hunting records suggest they now hunted only near the capital.

  • most of the textual sources demonize the last ruler 
  • Zhouxin was viewed as an arrogant and negligent ruler, inventing cruel forms of torture etc …

  • his explains the eventual dissent of the Shang allies
  • also King Wen of Zhou organized a coalition
  • he expanded eastward & approached the Shang territory
  • Wen died but soon his son, King Wu, led the assault on the Shang
  • Zhouxin was defeated, committed suicide.

  • the Shang dynasty remains a turning point in the history of China
  • many of the characteristics of Chinese civilization can be traced to the Shang
  • the most notable is writing; 
  • others are
  • a) ancestor worship, 
  • b) bronze casting,
  • c) calendar keeping



  • the Shang marks the start of the synthesis of social, political, and religious power systems
  • they remained a central feature of Chinese civilization
  • later these features were to undergo modifications.


Recapitulation: 


  • in this development the Xia and the Shang begin to take a tangible form
  • this is what they tell us about China’s origins

  • 1
  • there seems to have been a smooth transition from the innumerable Neolithic villages of the Longshan culture to the Bronze Age capital cities of the three Dynasties, of which can be viewed as successive stages of a single cultural development.

  • by looking at the tools and weapons, the pots and vessels, the domestication of crops and animals, the architectural layout of settlement and burials, and the evident practices of religion and government, we begin to see a high degree of cultural homogeneity and continuity.

  • one dynasty succeeded another through warfare
  • there is no evidence of any invasion from an “outside” culture.

  • the Xia, Shang, and Zhou seem to have co-existed
  • they were centred in three different areas.
  • the Shang and then the Zhou became the dominant centre of ancient North China.
  • these ancient capitals testify to the power of kingship 
  • this was based on sedentary, land-locked agriculture
  • it was not based on mobile waterborne trade with other areas.



The Beginnings of a Central Authority:


  • the deposits of the Yangshao and Longshan types of pottery are found in different areas
  • this would be in half a dozen or more areas on the North Plain
  • this includes along the Yellow River and Lower Yangzi
  • this shows the differences of local cultures

  • contacts among these Neolithic farming villages grew
  • this produced a broader government from a central capital.

  • family lineages, derived from large tribal clans, set up their separated wall towns
  • the oracle bones do name about a thousand towns.
  • lineages established relations by marriage headed by a patriarch.

  • the making of bronze coincided with the rise of the first central government 
  • this was during the Xia and Shang dynasties over a broad area
  • only a strong authority could ensure the mining of ore.

  • the making ritual vessels of bronze had several implications:

  • a royal authority was concerned with rituals as an aspect of power
  • it was able to assign manpower to the onerous task of mining ore and refining metals.

  • in the Xia and Shang the ruling family made use of elaborate and dramatic rituals 
  • this was to confirm their power to rule
  • they would communicate with the spirits of the ancestors to secure their help and guidance.

  • the shaman would be aided by his power animal
  • it was considered to have a totemic relation to the ancestor.

  • these were represented on the Shang bronze vessels by animal designs
  • a good example is the symmetrical and bilateral animal masks (taotie).

  • by practising a religious cult of the ancestors, local rulers made legitimate their authority
  • some became lords over groups of towns
  • one group would merge with another until a single ruling dynasty could emerge in an area



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