The Shang dynasty (), also historically known as the Yin dynasty (), was a
Chinese dynasty
Dynasties in Chinese history, or Chinese dynasties, were hereditary monarchical regimes that ruled over China during much of its history. From the inauguration of dynastic rule by Yu the Great in circa 2070 BC to the abdication of the Puyi, ...
that ruled in the middle and lower
Yellow River
The Yellow River (Chinese: , Jin Chinese, Jin: uə xɔ Standard Beijing Mandarin, Mandarin: ''Huáng hé'' ) is the second-longest river in China, after the Yangtze River, and the List of rivers by length, sixth-longest river system in ...
valley in the
second millennium BC
The 2nd millennium BC spanned the years 2000 through 1001 BC.
In the Ancient Near East
The ancient Near East was the home of early civilization
A civilization (or civilisation) is any complex society that is characterized by urban de ...
, traditionally succeeding the
Xia dynasty
The Xia dynasty is the first dynasty in traditional Chinese historiography. According to tradition, the Xia dynasty was established by the legendary Yu the Great, after Shun, the last of the Five Emperors, gave the throne to him. In the tra ...

and followed by the
Zhou dynasty
The Zhou dynasty ( ; Old Chinese
Old Chinese, also called Archaic Chinese in older works, is the oldest attested stage of Chinese, and the ancestor of all modern varieties of Chinese. The earliest examples of Chinese are divinatory inscript ...
. The classic account of the Shang comes from texts such as the ''
Book of Documents
The ''Book of Documents'' (''Shūjīng'', earlier ''Shu King'') or ''Classic of History'', also known as the ''Shangshu'' ("Esteemed Documents"), is one of the Five Classics
The Four Books and Five Classics () are the authoritative books of ...
'', ''
Bamboo Annals
The ''Bamboo Annals'' (), also known as the ''Ji Tomb Annals'' (), is a chronicle
A chronicle ( la, chronica, from Greek language, Greek ''chroniká'', from , ''chrónos'' – "time") is a historical account of events arranged in chronology, ...
'' and ''
Records of the Grand Historian
The ''Records of the Grand Historian'', also known by its Chinese name ''Shiji'', is a monumental history of ancient China and the world finished around 94 BC by the Western Han Dynasty official Sima Qian after having been started by his father ...

''. 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
The Xia–Shang–Zhou Chronology Project () was a multi-disciplinary project commissioned by the People's Republic of China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the List of countries and de ...
dated them from c. 1600 to 1046 BC based on the
carbon-14 dates of the
Erligang
The Erligang culture () is a Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a prehistoric Periodization, period that was characterized by the use of bronze, in some areas proto-writing, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the s ...
site.
The Shang dynasty is the earliest dynasty of traditional
Chinese history
The earliest known written records of the history of China date from as early as 1250 BC, from the Shang dynasty
The Shang dynasty (), also historically known as the Yin dynasty (), was a Chinese dynasty that ruled in the middle and ...
firmly supported by archaeological evidence. Excavation at the
(near modern-day
Anyang
Anyang (; ) is a prefecture-level city
A road sign shows distance to the "Huangshi urban area" () rather than simply " Yangxin County from the neighboring Xianning), but still from the Huangshi main urban area.
A prefectural-level municipali ...

), 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
Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (such as aluminum, manganese, nickel or zinc) and sometimes non-metals or metalloids such as arsenic, phosphorus or ...

,
jade
Jade is a mineral, much used in some cultures as jewellery and for ornaments, mostly known for its green varieties, though it appears naturally in other colors as well, notably yellow and white. Jade can refer to either of two different silicat ...

,
stone
A rock is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its chemical composition and the way in which it is formed. Rocks form the Earth's outer solid layer, th ...

,
bone
A bone is a rigid tissue
Tissue may refer to:
Biology
* Tissue (biology), an ensemble of similar cells that together carry out a specific function
* ''Triphosa haesitata'', a species of geometer moth found in North America
* ''Triphosa dubit ...

, and
ceramic
A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant
Corrosion is a natural process that converts a refined metal into a more chemically stable form such as oxide
of rutile. Ti(IV) centers are grey; oxygen ce ...

artifacts have been found.
The Anyang site has yielded the earliest known body of
Chinese writing
Written Chinese () comprises Chinese characters used to represent the Chinese language. Chinese characters do not constitute an alphabet or a compact syllabary. Rather, the writing system is roughly Logogram, logosyllabic; that is, a character gene ...

, mostly
divination
Divination (from Latin ''divinare'', 'to foresee, to foretell, to predict, to prophesy') is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occult
The occult, in the broadest sense, is a category of supernatural
The ...

s inscribed on
oracle bone
Oracle bones () are pieces of ox scapula and turtle plastron, which were used for pyromancy – a form of divination – in ancient China, mainly during the late Shang dynasty. ''Scapulimancy'' is the correct term if ox scapulae were used for the ...

s – turtle shells, ox
scapula
In anatomy, the scapula (plural scapulae or scapulas), also known as the shoulder bone, shoulder blade, wing bone, speal bone or blade bone, is the bone that connects the humerus (upper arm bone) with the clavicle (collar bone). Like their connec ...

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
.
Traditional accounts
Many events concerning the Shang dynasty are mentioned in various
Chinese classics
Chinese classic texts or canonical texts () or simply dianji (典籍) refers to the Chinese texts which originated before the imperial unification by the Qin dynasty in 221 BC, particularly the "Four Books and Five Classics
The Four Books and ...
, including the ''
Book of Documents
The ''Book of Documents'' (''Shūjīng'', earlier ''Shu King'') or ''Classic of History'', also known as the ''Shangshu'' ("Esteemed Documents"), is one of the Five Classics
The Four Books and Five Classics () are the authoritative books of ...
'', the ''
Mencius
Mencius ( ); born Mèng Kē (); or Mengzi (; 372–289 BC) was a Chinese Confucian philosopher who has often been described as the "second Sage", that is, after only Confucius
}
Confucius ( ; zh, s=, p=Kǒng Fūzǐ, "Master Kǒng"; or ...
'' and the ''
Zuo Zhuan
The ''Zuo Zhuan'' (; ), generally translated ''The Zuo Tradition'' or ''The Commentary of Zuo'', is an ancient Chinese narrative history that is traditionally regarded as a commentary on the ancient Chinese chronicle ''Spring and Autumn Annals' ...

''. Working from all the available documents, the
Han dynasty#REDIRECT Han dynasty
The Han dynasty () was the second Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 220 AD), established by the rebel leader Liu Bang and ruled by the House of Liu. Preceded by the short-lived Qin dynas ...

historian
Sima Qian
Sima Qian (; ; ) was a Chinese historian of the early Han dynasty#REDIRECT Han dynasty
The Han dynasty () was the second Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 220 AD), established by the rebel leader Liu B ...

assembled a sequential account of the Shang dynasty as part of his ''
Records of the Grand Historian
The ''Records of the Grand Historian'', also known by its Chinese name ''Shiji'', is a monumental history of ancient China and the world finished around 94 BC by the Western Han Dynasty official Sima Qian after having been started by his father ...

''. 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 ''Bamboo Annals'' (), also known as the ''Ji Tomb Annals'' (), is a chronicle
A chronicle ( la, chronica, from Greek language, Greek ''chroniká'', from , ''chrónos'' – "time") is a historical account of events arranged in chronology, ...
''. 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
Huangfu Mi (215–282), courtesy name Shi'an (), was a Chinese physician, essayist, historian, poet, and writer who lived through the late Eastern Han dynasty, Three Kingdoms period and early Western Jin dynasty. He was born in a poor farming f ...
(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
ZhouZhou may refer to:
Chinese history
* King Zhou of Shang () (1105 BC–1046 BC), the last king of the Shang dynasty
* Predynastic Zhou (), 11th-century BC precursor to the Zhou dynasty
* Zhou dynasty () (1046 BC–256 BC), a dynasty of China
** Weste ...
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
Kù (, variant graph ), usually referred to as Dì Kù (), also known as Gaoxin or Gāoxīn Shì (), was a descendant of Huangdi, the Yellow Emperor.
He went by the name Gaoxin until receiving imperial authority, when he took the name Ku and the t ...
, 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
Yu the Great (大禹) was a legendary king in ancient China
The earliest known written records of the history of China date from as early as 1250 BC, from the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BC), during the king Wu Ding's reign, who was me ...
to control the
Great Flood
A flood myth or deluge myth is a myth
Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. The main characters in myths are usually gods, demigods, or supe ...
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
Xia (Hsia in Wade–Giles) may refer to:
Chinese history
* Xia dynasty (夏) (c. 2070 – c. 1600 BC)
* Xia (Sixteen Kingdoms) (夏) (407–431), a Xiongnu state
* Xia (夏) (617–621), a state founded by Dou Jiande near the end of the Sui dynast ...

ruler in the
Battle of Mingtiao
The Battle of Mingtiao was a battle
A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well d ...
. The ''Records'' recount events from the reigns of Tang,
Tai Jia,
Tai Wu,
Pan Geng
Pán Gēng (), personal name Zi Xun, was a Shang dynasty
The Shang dynasty (), also historically known as the Yin dynasty (), was a Chinese dynasty
Dynasties in Chinese history, or Chinese dynasties, were hereditary monarchical regime ...
,
Wu Ding
Wu Ding (), personal name Zǐ Zhāo, was a king of the Shang dynasty
The Shang dynasty (), also historically known as the Yin dynasty (), was a Chinese dynasty
Dynasties in Chinese history, or Chinese dynasties, were hereditary monarc ...
,
Wu Yi and the depraved final king
Di Xin
King Zhou (/oʊ/; ) was the pejorative posthumous name
A posthumous name is an honorary name given to royalty, nobles, and sometimes others, in East Asia
East Asia is the eastern region of Asia
Asia () is Earth's largest and most ...
, 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
. Legends say that his army and his equipped slaves betrayed him by joining the Zhou rebels in the decisive
Battle of Muye
The Battle of Muye or Battle of Mu () was a battle fought in ancient China
The earliest known written records of the history of China date from as early as 1250 BC, from the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BC), during the king Wu Ding's re ...

. According to the ''
Yi Zhou Shu
The ''Yi Zhou Shu'' () is a compendium of Chinese historical documents about the Western Zhou
The Western Zhou ( zh, c=, p=Xīzhōu; c. 1045 BC – 771 BC) was the first half of the Zhou dynasty of ancient China. It began when King Wu of Zhou
...
'' and
Mencius
Mencius ( ); born Mèng Kē (); or Mengzi (; 372–289 BC) was a Chinese Confucian philosopher who has often been described as the "second Sage", that is, after only Confucius
}
Confucius ( ; zh, s=, p=Kǒng Fūzǐ, "Master Kǒng"; or ...

the battle was very bloody. The classic,
Ming#REDIRECT Ming dynasty#REDIRECT Ming dynasty
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-era novel ''