Shang dynasty

The Shang dynasty (), also historically known as the Yin dynasty (), was a Chinese dynasty that ruled in the middle and lower Yellow River valley in the second millennium BC, traditionally succeeding the

Xia dynasty

and followed by the 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

''. According to the traditional chronology based on calculations made approximately 2,000 years ago by Liu Xin, the Shang ruled from 1766 to 1122 BC, but according to the chronology based upon the "current text" of ''Bamboo Annals'', they ruled from 1556 to 1046 BC. The Xia–Shang–Zhou Chronology Project dated them from c. 1600 to 1046 BC based on the carbon-14 dates of the Erligang site.

The Shang dynasty is the earliest dynasty of traditional Chinese history firmly supported by archaeological evidence. Excavation at the

Ruins of Yin

(near modern-day

Anyang

), which has been identified as the last Shang capital, 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

artifacts have been found.

The Anyang site has yielded the earliest known body of

Chinese writing

, mostly

divination

s inscribed on

oracle bone

s – turtle shells, ox

scapula

e, or other bones. 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 this early stage of

Chinese civilization

.

Traditional accounts

Many events concerning the Shang dynasty are mentioned in various Chinese classics, including the ''Book of Documents'', the ''Mencius'' and the ''

Zuo Zhuan

''. Working from all the available documents, the

Han dynasty

historian

Sima Qian

assembled a sequential account of the Shang dynasty as part of his ''

Records of the Grand Historian

''. His history describes some events in detail, while in other cases only the name of a king is given. A closely related, but slightly different, account is given by the ''Bamboo Annals''. The ''Annals'' were interred in 296 BC, but the text has a complex history and the authenticity of the surviving versions is controversial.

The name ''Yīn'' (殷) is used by Sima Qian for the dynasty, and in the "current text" version of the ''Bamboo Annals'' for both the dynasty and its final capital. It has been a popular name for the Shang throughout history. Since the ''Records of Emperors and Kings'' by Huangfu Mi (3rd century AD), it has often been used specifically to describe the later half of the Shang dynasty. In Japan and Korea, the Shang are still referred to almost exclusively as the Yin (''In'') dynasty. However, it seems to have been a Zhou name for the earlier dynasty. The word does not appear in the oracle bones, which refer to the state as ''Shāng'' (商), and the capital as ''Dàyì Shāng'' (大邑商 "Great Settlement Shang"). It also does not appear in securely dated Western Zhou bronze inscriptions.

Founding myth

The founding myth of the Shang dynasty is described by Sima Qian in the ''Annals of the Yin''. In the text, a woman named Jiandi (簡狄), who was the second wife of Emperor Ku, swallowed an egg dropped by a black bird (玄鳥) and subsequently gave birth miraculously to Xie (偰) – also appearing as Qi (契). Xie is said to have helped Yu the Great to control the Great Flood and for his service to have been granted a place called Shang as a fief.

Dynastic course

In the ''Annals of the Yin'', Sima Qian writes that the dynasty was founded 13 generations after Xie, when Xie's descendant Tang overthrew the impious and cruel final

Xia

ruler in the Battle of Mingtiao. The ''Records'' recount events from the reigns of Tang, Tai Jia, Tai Wu, Pan Geng, Wu Ding, Wu Yi and the depraved final king Di Xin, but the rest of the Shang rulers are merely mentioned by name. According to the ''Records'', the Shang moved their capital five times, with the final move to Yin in the reign of Pan Geng inaugurating the golden age of the dynasty.

Di Xin, the last Shang king, is said to have committed suicide after his army was defeated by

Wu of Zhou

. Legends say that his army and his equipped slaves betrayed him by joining the Zhou rebels in the decisive

Battle of Muye

. According to the ''Yi Zhou Shu'' and

Mencius

the battle was very bloody. The classic,

Ming

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