Yr 7/11

1. The Shang Dynasty

3. Shang Dynasty
• Took over China in 1600 BC
• Ruled for ~700 years
• Took over 1800 smaller city-states
• Divided government into provinces
controlled by loyal governors

4. Social Hierarchy
• Head of political & religious lifeKing
• Advisors to King
• Government & religious officials
• Land Lords
Nobles
• From the far regions
Warriors
leaders
• Pottery
• Clothes
• Tools
• weapons
Artisans
•Worked long hours
•Little pay
•Over taxed
Farmers
• Lowest rank
• Important labor
resource
Slaves

5. Buildings
• In the cities people lived in
rectangular houses laid out in
rows, built of wood and
rammed earth.
• In the center of the city, there
was a big palace or temple on a
high earth platform. One
building at An-yang was a big
hall with pillars all the way
around it.

6. • There was a city wall of rammed earth around
the Shang capital at An-yang. These were built
by piling up dirt and pounding it until it was as
hard as rock.
• Other people at that time were building
rammed earth altars, in circular patterns like
this one to worship Heaven, and square ones
to worship Earth.
• In the summertime, people moved out of their
dark sod houses and lived instead in a tree-
house built on a wooden platform, with the
roof made of poles and branches. Living high
up in the air kept them safe from animals and
snakes.

7. Bronzeworking
• They had accomplished metal workers &
craftsmen
• Made bronze containers for cooking &
religious ceremonies, axes, knives

8. Military
• Military developed bronze weapons, body
armor, powerful bows and arrows, & war
chariots

9. Other Advancements
• They farmed millet, wheat, barley, & rice
• They grew silkworms, dogs, pigs, & sheep
• Astrologers created a calendar based on the cycles
of the moon to help predict births, deaths, harvest
time etc.

10. The Legend of Silk
• A 14 year old queen of China supposedly saw a worm
spin its cocoon. She then took the cocoon, dropped
it in hot water and watched it break up to threads.
The thread was the used to sew and create silk
garments.
• What is silk?
– It is secreted from the silk
worm’s mouth to make the
cocoons.
– This “spit-up” hardens upon
contact with the air.

11. Writing System
• More than 2,000 symbols to express words or
ideas
• Today’s Chinese symbols are still based on the
Shang Dynasty symbols
• Archeologist have found these symbols on
cattle bones and turtle shells
• Priests carved questions about the future on
the bones & shells, heated them up till they
cracked, and then read the oracles or
predictions from the cracks

12. The “Dragon Bones” Story
Fu Hao was married to King Wu Ding. He
was a great warrior king, but he made peace
with the surrounding tribes by marrying one
women from each tribe and he ended up
with 60 wives. She was smart enough to
earn his favour by working in his
government and he trusted her to perform
special rituals and offer sacrifices, which
was very unusual for a woman at that time,
anywhere in the world.
It was also very unusual for a woman be so
powerful and to lead military campaigns.
She was in charge of up to 13 000 soldiers
and was the boss of two generals Zhi and
Hou Gao. The Shang had been fighting with
the Tu-Fang for ages until Fu Hao defeated
them once and for all. Then she won major
battles against the Yi, Qiang and Ba tribes,
and led the earliest recorded large-scale
ambush in Chinese history.

13. King Ding must have been
very proud of her because he
built a magnificent tomb for
her after she died. Her
battle-axes and other
weapons were buried with
her, along with sacrificial
bronze vessels and tortoise
shells which are marked
prepared by Fu Hao. This
shows that she was a high
priestess and could cast
oracles (which means that
they thought she could tell
the future).
Fu Hao died about 1200 BC

14. Religion
• Gods for different parts of life
• Top god was Shang Ti- the
Founder of the Shang Dynasty
• Ancestor worship began in this
period, as did the sacrifices to the
gods
• When Kings died, thousands of
slaves were executed to serve
him in the afterlife.
• The kings tomb would be filled
with objects and food that he
would need in the afterlife