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Late Shang
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Late Shang
The Late Shang, also known as the Anyang period, is the earliest known literate civilization in China, spanning the reigns of the last nine kings of the Shang dynasty, beginning with Wu Ding in the second half of the 13th century BC and ending with the conquest of the Shang by the Zhou in the mid-11th century BC. The state is known from artifacts recovered from its capital at a site near Anyang now known as Yinxu and other sites across the North China Plain. One of the richest finds was the Tomb of Fu Hao at Yinxu, thought to belong to a consort of Wu Ding mentioned in Shang inscriptions.
Most Shang writing takes the form of inscriptions on oracle bones used for divinations on behalf of the king. Shang ritual focused on offerings to ancestors, enabling modern investigators to deduce a king list that largely matches that of the traditional histories of Sima Qian and the Bamboo Annals. The inscriptions also give insight into royal concerns such as weather, the harvest, warfare with neighbouring polities, and mobilizing workers for warfare or agricultural work.
The Late Shang shared many features of the earlier Erlitou and Erligang cultures, including the rammed earth technique for foundations of rectangular walled compounds. Bronze casting reached new heights of decoration and a volume unmatched elsewhere in the world at that time. Workshops in the capital produced ceramics and carved stone and bone for a variety of ceremonial, decorative or utilitarian purposes. Besides writing, new features of the Late Shang included horse-drawn chariots, massive royal tombs and human sacrifice on an unprecedented scale, both in divination rituals and in royal burials.
The traditional account of early Chinese history is found in the Historical Records (1st century BC) compiled by Sima Qian. In this account, after a series of sage rulers, China was ruled by a succession of dynasties, the Xia, Yin (or Shang), Zhou and Qin, culminating in the Han dynasty of Sima Qian's own time. In the early 20th century, the earlier parts of the textual account were challenged by the Doubting Antiquity School led by Gu Jiegang. At about the same time, archaeological discoveries confirmed the historicity of the last nine Shang kings, and found earlier cities in the Yellow River valley.
In 1898, the scholar Wang Yirong realized that the markings on ancient bones being sold by Chinese pharmacists were an early form of Chinese characters. By 1908, Luo Zhenyu had traced the bones to the village of Xiaotun on the northwest outskirts of Anyang in modern Henan province. The area was quickly recognized as the last capital of the Shang dynasty and named Yinxu 'ruins of Yin' from the name Yīn (殷) used by Sima Qian for the Shang dynasty and by the Bamboo Annals for the dynasty and its last capital. However, the name does not appear in the oracle bones, which refer to the state as Shāng (商), and its ritual centre as Dàyì Shāng (大邑商 'Great Settlement Shang').
In 1928, Dong Zuobin located the pits from which the oracle bones had been dug. The Academia Sinica undertook archaeological excavation of the site until the Japanese invasion in 1937, resuming in 1950. A permanent work station was established on the site in 1959.
The city covered an area of some 25 km2 (9.7 sq mi), focussed on a complex of palaces and temples on a rise surrounded by the Huan River on its north and east, and with an artificial pond on its western side. Further caches of oracle bones were discovered nearby. The area immediately to the south of the palace district contained craft workshops and the residences and cemeteries of the Shang elite. The rest of the city consisted of lineage-based settlements or neighbourhoods, with graves close by residential areas. More workshops, handling bronze, pottery, jade and bone, were concentrated in at least three production zones: south of the palace district, east of it across the river, and in the west of the city. The Anyang site had no city wall, and a canal or moat around the central district became blocked in the later reigns, suggesting that the Shang felt no danger of invasion.
On the other side of the river, 2.5 km (1.6 mi) to the northwest, a royal cemetery was found on the Xibeigang ridge. Shang kings were buried in large ramped tombs with extensive human and animal sacrifices. The royal tombs had been systematically looted, but in 1976 an undisturbed medium-sized tomb was discovered in the southwest part of the palace district. Many of the grave goods recovered were inscribed with the name of Fu Hao, a military leader and consort of Wu Ding known from the oracle bone inscriptions. The Tomb of Fu Hao yielded some 1,600 kg (3,500 lb) of bronze vessels, weapons and tools, as well as hundreds of jades and other worked stones, bone carvings and pottery.
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Late Shang
The Late Shang, also known as the Anyang period, is the earliest known literate civilization in China, spanning the reigns of the last nine kings of the Shang dynasty, beginning with Wu Ding in the second half of the 13th century BC and ending with the conquest of the Shang by the Zhou in the mid-11th century BC. The state is known from artifacts recovered from its capital at a site near Anyang now known as Yinxu and other sites across the North China Plain. One of the richest finds was the Tomb of Fu Hao at Yinxu, thought to belong to a consort of Wu Ding mentioned in Shang inscriptions.
Most Shang writing takes the form of inscriptions on oracle bones used for divinations on behalf of the king. Shang ritual focused on offerings to ancestors, enabling modern investigators to deduce a king list that largely matches that of the traditional histories of Sima Qian and the Bamboo Annals. The inscriptions also give insight into royal concerns such as weather, the harvest, warfare with neighbouring polities, and mobilizing workers for warfare or agricultural work.
The Late Shang shared many features of the earlier Erlitou and Erligang cultures, including the rammed earth technique for foundations of rectangular walled compounds. Bronze casting reached new heights of decoration and a volume unmatched elsewhere in the world at that time. Workshops in the capital produced ceramics and carved stone and bone for a variety of ceremonial, decorative or utilitarian purposes. Besides writing, new features of the Late Shang included horse-drawn chariots, massive royal tombs and human sacrifice on an unprecedented scale, both in divination rituals and in royal burials.
The traditional account of early Chinese history is found in the Historical Records (1st century BC) compiled by Sima Qian. In this account, after a series of sage rulers, China was ruled by a succession of dynasties, the Xia, Yin (or Shang), Zhou and Qin, culminating in the Han dynasty of Sima Qian's own time. In the early 20th century, the earlier parts of the textual account were challenged by the Doubting Antiquity School led by Gu Jiegang. At about the same time, archaeological discoveries confirmed the historicity of the last nine Shang kings, and found earlier cities in the Yellow River valley.
In 1898, the scholar Wang Yirong realized that the markings on ancient bones being sold by Chinese pharmacists were an early form of Chinese characters. By 1908, Luo Zhenyu had traced the bones to the village of Xiaotun on the northwest outskirts of Anyang in modern Henan province. The area was quickly recognized as the last capital of the Shang dynasty and named Yinxu 'ruins of Yin' from the name Yīn (殷) used by Sima Qian for the Shang dynasty and by the Bamboo Annals for the dynasty and its last capital. However, the name does not appear in the oracle bones, which refer to the state as Shāng (商), and its ritual centre as Dàyì Shāng (大邑商 'Great Settlement Shang').
In 1928, Dong Zuobin located the pits from which the oracle bones had been dug. The Academia Sinica undertook archaeological excavation of the site until the Japanese invasion in 1937, resuming in 1950. A permanent work station was established on the site in 1959.
The city covered an area of some 25 km2 (9.7 sq mi), focussed on a complex of palaces and temples on a rise surrounded by the Huan River on its north and east, and with an artificial pond on its western side. Further caches of oracle bones were discovered nearby. The area immediately to the south of the palace district contained craft workshops and the residences and cemeteries of the Shang elite. The rest of the city consisted of lineage-based settlements or neighbourhoods, with graves close by residential areas. More workshops, handling bronze, pottery, jade and bone, were concentrated in at least three production zones: south of the palace district, east of it across the river, and in the west of the city. The Anyang site had no city wall, and a canal or moat around the central district became blocked in the later reigns, suggesting that the Shang felt no danger of invasion.
On the other side of the river, 2.5 km (1.6 mi) to the northwest, a royal cemetery was found on the Xibeigang ridge. Shang kings were buried in large ramped tombs with extensive human and animal sacrifices. The royal tombs had been systematically looted, but in 1976 an undisturbed medium-sized tomb was discovered in the southwest part of the palace district. Many of the grave goods recovered were inscribed with the name of Fu Hao, a military leader and consort of Wu Ding known from the oracle bone inscriptions. The Tomb of Fu Hao yielded some 1,600 kg (3,500 lb) of bronze vessels, weapons and tools, as well as hundreds of jades and other worked stones, bone carvings and pottery.
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