Shang Dynasty

From Heterodontosaurus Balls

Shang Dynasty, also known as the Yin Dynasty (殷代), is the second dynasty of China. He existed in the Bronze Age and have many bronze tools, such as pots and daggers. His bronze making skill is unmatched, especially for his time. This royal dynasty that ruled in the Yellow River valley during the second millennium BC for around six centuries, traditionally succeeding the Xia Dynasty and followed by the Zhou Dynasty.

Being not a desendant of the Huaxia but rather of the Yi (夷), the Shang’s civilization was vastly different from the Xia (but still Shang is still descendent from XuanYuan HuangDi). Compared to Xia, Shang was less benevolent, is more mystic, believes strongly in spirits and demons, hires wizards to deal with the realm of the spirits, and performs many sacrifices. He burns turtle shells and see which way the cracks form as fortune telling.

The dynastic colour of the Shang dynasty is white.

History

Beginning

The Shang dynasty, emerged from the Predynastic Shang (which was a separate clan from China at the time), was founded by Tang of Shang, who led an army and stormed the Xia capital to invade a get rid of the tyrannical Jie of Xia. Shang achieved this through the support of many Xia people who also disliked Jie, and at the Battle of Mingtiao (present-day Xia County) the Shang won victorious.

After defeating Xia, Shang suffered from a famine, no crops were harvested for five years, and no rain came down, causing a drought, despite Tang’s prayers. The wizard told Tang that a live human needs to be sacrificed to the heavens in order for the drought to end. Tang blamed his own sins for the drought, so he lied down on a pile of firewood and told people to set him on fire and sacrifice himself. Just when Tang was about to be burnt, great rain came down.

Shang Dynasty moved his capital many times. The first capital was Bo, and Tang lived there.

Middle

In the 11th year of king Tai Wu's reign, he ordered the Wuxian (a Chinese shaman) to pray at to the mountains. In the 26th year of his reign, the Queen of Xirong sent an envoy to Shang. In the 46th year of his reign, there was a great harvest of crops. In the 58th year of his reign, he built the city of Pugu (蒲姑). In the 61st year of his reign, the nine east barbarian Yi tribes (東九夷) sent envoys to Shang.

During the reign of Yong Ji, the 8th king of Shang, the economy started to decline. Zhong Ding, either the 9th king or the 10th king of Shang, moved the capital from Bo to Ao. In the sixth year of his reign he attacked the Blue Yi (蓝夷).

During king Wai Ren's reign there was a rebellion from Shang's vassals of Pi (邳) and Xian (侁) peoples. And in the first year of He Dan Jia's reign, Shang conducted many military campaigns. He also moved his capital to from Ao to Xiang. In the third year of He Dan Jia's reign, his Minister Pengbo (彭伯) conquered Pi who had rebelled. In the fourth year of his reign he launched another attack against the Blue Yi. In the fifth year of his reign the Xian occupied Banfang (班方) but were later defeated by the king's ministers, and sent an envoy to the Shang.

In the first year of king Zu Yi's reign, he moved his capital to Geng where he held a ceremony and wrote the article of Zuyi. The following year he moved his capital again, this time to Bi where six years later his palace was completed. During his reign the Shang became stronger than ever thanks to some fine appointments including Wuxian (巫贤) as his prime minister in the third year of his reign and Gaoyu (高圉) as his vassal in the fifteenth year of his reign.

Peak

During the reign of King Wu Ding (around 1250 BC), the Shang dynasty reached his height. Wu Ding is remembered for his military campaigns, which expanded Shang territory, and for his contributions to the development of Shang society, including advancements in metallurgy, particularly bronze casting. Under Wu Ding's rule, the Shang Dynasty became a major regional power, with a well-developed system of agriculture, commerce, and ritual practices. And since the Shang’s battles mostly resulted in victory, many enemies were captured as slaves, providing an abundance of human sacrifices, causing it to peak in this era. According to oracle bone records, once 1000 people were sacrificed in the same event.

Fall

The last king of Shang, Di Xin (AKA Zhou of Shang), was a tyrant.

Many leaders of the neighboring ethnicities and kingdoms were sacrificed once captured by Shang forces. When King Wen of Zhou, the patriarch of Predynastic Zhou during the final years of Shang dynasty, was captured by Di Xin, he feared greatly of being sacrificed. His family was worried too, so his eldest son, Bo Yikao, plead for his freedom, only to be killed and turned into meat cakes. Those meat cakes were fed to Wen, and Wen figured it was his son, since he was proficient of I Ching. But for the sake of getting out and getting revenge for his son, he ate the cakes. Di Xin figured that if he didn’t know the meat was of his son’s, then he was not sent by the Mandate of Heaven, and if he knew but still ate it, it means that he was cruel and definitely not sent by he Mandate of Heaven. So, Wen was eventually released.

The human sacrifices bred hatred between the Shang people and the neighbors ethnicities, who were the main victims of this ritual. The anger boiled up until the Zhou peoples, who had Qiang blood in them, invaded and destroyed the weak Shang. This was one of the factors that caused the fall of Shang.

Di Xin moved all the best troops to the southeast border to attack the Dongyi peoples. Wu of Zhuo, younger brother of Bo Yikao, seized this opportunity, got together all his allies and made a grand army to invade Shang, and also take revenge for his father and brother. By the time Di Xin knew about this, it was too late to call back the soldiers from the southeast border, so he made an army of still remaining soldiers and slaves to form a relatively big army. The two grand armies met at Muye, and fought a huge battle, known as the Battle of Muye. The Zhou won and the Shang fell.

A reason why the Zhou won is because many of the Shang army that fought them was made of slaves, whose family members have been sacrificed, and don’t know when they will be sacrificed too. So when the Shang gave them a weapon and told them to fight, they knew who they were going to be fighting: not the Zhou, but the Shang. So many of the Shang army purposely led the Zhou soldiers to the capital, Zhaoge. Di Xin committed suicide by immolation.

Maybe the reason Di Xin wanted to burn himself was to copy the virtuous first king of the Shang dynasty, Tang, to pseudo-sacrifice himself and let the Heavens save him and win against Zhou. But, no rain came down to but out the fire, and no angels came down to stop him, and Di Xin really just burned to death, like many of his sacrifices.

The dynasty died, but the people didn’t, and the religion didn’t. So the many many people from the Shang, who now lived under the new Zhou regime, still practiced human sacrifice. And Shang loyalists still existed after the death of Di Xin, which caused the Rebellion of the Three Guards (c. 1042 BC-1039 BC) which as a result finally snuffed out the remaining Shang territory.

Society

The Shang kings and their nobles ruled the mainly rural populations from walled towns and cities. Horse-drawn chariots were the chief means of transport.

Artifacts

Major archeological discoveries have been made of artifacts from the Shang dynasty, such as containers. Some graves were also found, containing remains of human sacrifices. The Shang people likes to carve Taotie, an ancient Chinese mythological creature, onto all of their bronze cauldrons and cups.

Religion

The Shang peoples were extremely mystic. Before doing anything, they almost always ask the spirits and gods. They strongly believe in the Shang State Religion.

Like the Aztec civilization[1], the Shang sacrificed many people to the gods, stemming from the belief that a human is the most precious and valuable thing and therefore should be given to the gods. From oracle bone records, the Shang sacrificed more than 14000 people, and have more than 11 methods of doing so. In fact, many Chinese characters that are used today evolve from depictions of human sacrifice methods. The main source of human sacrifice are soldiers and leaders from other conquered or defeated tribes/ethnicities.

List of Shang Kings

NOTE: Due to the conflicting dates given by Sima Qian and the Oracle Bones, it is hard to pinpoint the exact dates for everything.


Rulers of the Shang dynasty
Name Chinese Name Number (Oracle) Number (Sima Qian) Years of Reign Years (BC) Notes
Tang[2] 1 1 29 1776 BC-1747 BC Founder of Dynastic Shang
Da Ding[3] 大丁 2 Died[4] - - Son of Tang
Tai Jia 太甲 3 4 12 1623 BC-1611 BC (as 4th king) Son of Da Ding
Bu Bing 卜丙 4 2 - - Son of Tang
Tai Geng 太庚 5 6 25 (disputed)[5] 1592 BC-1567 BC Son of Tai Jia
Xiao Jia 小甲 6 7 4 - Son of Tai Jia, brother of Tai Geng
Tai Wu[6] 太戊 7 9 75 - Son of Tai Geng, nephew of Xiao Jia
Yong Ji 雍己 8 8 - - Son of Tai Geng, brother of Tai Wu & Xiao Jia
Zhong Ding 仲丁 9 10 11 or 9 - Son of Tai Wu
Wai Ren 外壬 10 11 15 (disputed)[7] - Son of Tai Wu
He Dan Jia[8] 河亶甲 11 12 9 - Son of Tai Wu
Zu Yi 祖乙 12 13 19 1428 BC-1409 BC Son of Zhong Ding
Zu Xin 祖辛 13 14 16 (disputed)[9] - Son of Zu Yi

MORE TBA

Shang in the Modern Eyes

There is a saying that in a three-child family, the second child is always neglected. This saying also applies to the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties. In front of the Shang Dynasty, there was Great Yu who set up the nine provinces; behind him, there was the Zhou Dynasty with his martial arts and rites and music, which made the Shang Dynasty seem to be relatively insignificant in comparison.

The discovery of the oracle bones and the excavation of Yin ruins brought out the face of this dynasty. Nowadays, Shang is called the first dynasty of China by scholars who take archaeological evidence as a guideline.

For the so-called “era of credible history”, there is also a “era of doubt” with it, is the product of the modern westernization of the east. Before the discovery of the Yin ruins, the Shang Dynasty was also categorized in the “era of doubt”, and unfortunately, the dynasties before the Shang Dynasty are still in the “doubt”.

This is a very interesting phenomenon, the Zhou Dynasty people do not doubt the existence of the Shang Dynasty, the Shang Dynasty people do not doubt the existence of the Xia Dynasty, the subsequent dynasties are also convinced, but in recent times people are suspicious. Let's make an analogy, the father knows that the grandfather exists, the son also knows that the grandfather existed, the son of the son also knows, so generation after generation. But, after time, some of the grandfather's children and grandchildren say: “I have not seen this person, nor have I seen his relics, he is not necessarily my ancestors. As for the genealogical records, that may have been made up by my forefathers.”

For some scholars, the dynasties prior to the Shang Dynasty are still in “doubt”. This is one of the after-effects of the Party culture (黨文化) and the modern mutated concepts that destroys our fine tradition of “Virtue and Faith in the Ancients” and forces us to forget our ancestors. Fortunately, the Heavens has the virtue of good life, and did not let us make the mistake is too big, and the Shang Dynasty's relics have been showed to the world. Now people are more and more sober and rational, the dust of history is also gradually and orderly open, and the ancient history of the Shang archaeological artifacts provides us with more and more information.

Trivia

  • Many people say that the historian Sima Qian’s records of all the Shang kings are completely made up, but once the oracle bone scripts from the Shang dynasty were discovered, people found out that the Shang kings carved into the script matches up almost exactly with Sima Qian’s records.
  • The Shang kings are known for their lavish tombs and royal burials. They were buried with many treasures, including bronzeware, jade objects, and sometimes even human sacrifices. This reflects the importance of the afterlife in Shang religious beliefs.

Relations

Enemies

  • Qiang - My main source of human sacrifices. I also have a much stronger army so I always win.

How to draw

The character “商” (Shang) in oracle bone script.
Taotie pattern from the Shang Dynasty, commonly carved on to bronze pots and cups.

Shang Dynasty has a drawing rating of hard.

  1. Draw a ball.
  2. Fill it with white.
  3. Add a light grey circular border in the ball.
  4. Add a second light grey circular border, this time in Shang Taotie patterns.
  5. Add a grey "Shang" character in oracle bone script, in grey, in the middle.
  6. Add Asian eyes and you are done.
  7. Add some bronze tools (optional)
Color Name HEX
White #FFFFFF
Light Grey #C7C7C7
Grey #AEAEAE

Notes

  1. According to some scholars' comparisons, maybe they have a very old common origin when humans entered Myanmar
  2. Also known as Da Yi (大乙).
  3. Also known as Tai Ding (太丁).
  4. Sources conflict on weather he was the 2nd king of Shang or not. Sima Qian said he died before succeeding his father, while the Oracle Bones record him as the second king of Shang.
  5. Sources conflict on how many years he ruled. Sima Qian said he ruled for 5 years while the Oracle Bones states that he ruled for 25 years.
  6. Also known as Da Wu (大戊)
  7. The Bamboo Annuals claim that Wai Ren ruled for 10 years.
  8. Also known as Jian Jia (戔甲).
  9. The Bamboo Annuals claim that Zu Xin ruled for 14 years.

See Also

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