Qinling mountains divide north China from south China
Rivers
River civilizations
Rivers deposit loess in the North China Plain
Loess: silt, builds up along sides, then it sheers off and causes big floods
Course of the Yellow River repeatedly changes
China's capital moved because the river moved too
Yellow River called China's Sorrow because of its destructive flood
Climate
North: dry, cold, winds in winter
South: more moist, summer monsoons, grow rice, tea, bamboo, mulberry trees
Neolithic China
Evidence:No textual sources
Limited to the materials that survive for archaeologists to find
Lack answers to many questions
Earliest evidence from c. 5000 BCE
Yangshao
Settled agricultural society: Banpo village
Groupings of houses and graves thought to reflect extended kinship relationships
Variations of wealth even within kinship groups
Practice of secondary burial in cemeteries outside the village
Burry, then a year later they dig them up, put in a new and nicer grave with grave goods
Grave goods: some have lots, some have few, social stratification, different levels of wealth/status
graves grouped by clan
family was important, family more important than social status
Probably not warlike, because few weapons
Coil Method: rolled snakes of clay layered on top of each other to make a pot--> thick
no specialized workers for pottery
proto-writing
Longshan
Start later, but overlaps with Yangshao; located farther north and east
Settled agriculture society
Defensive walls up to 40 feet thick; arrowheads and spearheads
Used potter's wheel; pottery is black (in contrast to red Yanshao pots)
thinner,used kick wheel, more sophisticated, symmetrical
Cultural Antecedents to the Shang Dynasty
From Yangshao: proto-writing, importance of kinship groups
From Longshan: potter's wheel, settlement walls, ritual use of cracked bones, warrior society
From Both: agricultural society, social stratification
China's Mythological Past
The Xia Dynasty
Accounts of early Chinese history tell of mythical kings responsible for the gifts of fire, farming, silk, etc.
All legends based on Confucian stories
No archaeological evidence to anchor theses stories in history
Used to think that the Shang dynasty was mythological and dismissed the ancient lists of Shang's kings as legend, and these have now been confirmed
Scholars now less willing to dismiss accounts of the Xia
Oracle bones: wrote questions on them to the gods, cracked with hot iron rod, made family tree out of names in the questions, which matched exactly to the king's list
Legends of the Xia
Traditionally dated 2205-1766 BCE
Founded by Emperor Yu, who organized large-scale flood control and irrigation projects
Dikes on side of river
Jie: the last emperor of the Xia dynasty, described as thoroughly evil
Some scholars interpret this as a myth created by the Shang to justify their seizure of power
The Shang Dynasty
Overview
Capital near modern Anyang, north of the Yellow River on the North China Plain
Earliest form of Chinese writing
Walled cities
Bronze age technology
Thought to be only legendary until the discovery of oracle bones
Evidence
Writing on oracle bones and bronze artifacts
Oracle bones link archaeological finds and ancient Chinese histories
Archaeological finds
Ancient Chinese histories written hundreds of years later
Government
Shang heartland
King is the political, religious, and military leader
Highest religious figure because he's the head of the Shang family
Their clan ancestors were controlling things around them, so people related to the ancestors to the ancestors could rule because their ancestors would listen to them
Only males can be king
Hereditary rule was passed through the eldest son
Members of the royal family governed estates for the king
Not all family members had equal status, so they had different titles
Scholars think that government positions were hereditary
These nobles enjoyed the incomes from their lands but also had to supply soldiers for the king's use
Each estate was ruled from a walled city
The king had less power farther from the center
Allied Chieftains
Most distant lands were ruled by chieftains without blood ties to the kings
Independent ruler of a tribe
Allied chieftains not really under king's control, but king has a bigger army
Divination
Ritual
Hot poker touched to holes made on turtle shells or ox scapulas to cause cracking
Opposing statements tested, sometimes repeatedly; then cracks would be interpreted (only done by the king because of his divine power)
Texts
Over 100,000 fragments of inscribed bones have been found
Inscriptions follow a formula: the date, the diviner, the statement
A Skewed View?
Remarkable as unmediated and unedited sources, but very limited purpose and focus
How might the oracle bones distort our picture of Shang culture?
Shang Military
Weapons
Bronze halberds (ge), daggers, and special axes for beheading (yue), but NO SWORDS
Composite bows (first civilization to have composite bow)
Light chariots similar to those of Egypt
Conflicts
Frequent battles with neighboring nomads, who were designated with the character '-fang' when they were rebelling
Numerous accounts of the beheadings of war captives as gifts to the gods and ancestors
Both the nobles and 'the multitudes' fought
Fu Hao provides an example of a noblewoman leading troops into battle
Kings often used divination to guide their military planning
Religion under the Shang Dynasty
Shang Ancestors
Dead ancestors were believed to affect health, success in battle or hunt, childbirth, weather, and harvests
More distant ancestors held more power
Sacrificed to both male and female ancestors
Ancestors of the Zi clan (Shang) functioned as Gods for all
The king oversaw religion because he was the head of the Zi clan
Nature Gods
Little information available about most of these gods
Theory says that many of these Gods are more distant Shang ancestors, or the Shang adopted the deities of the tribes that their empire absorbed
Other gods include the Yellow River, winds, soil, and sun
Di, the high god, had the widest range of powers but never required sacrifice (VERY SIMILAR TO TIAN IN ZHOU RELIGION)
Sacrifices
Sacrifices of human war captives and animals were made to both ancestral and nature spirits
Regularly scheduled sacrifices were made, as well as additional sacrifices for specific concerns
By the end of the Dynasty, there was a major ritual every day of the year
Shang Society
Clan Structure
Shang society is best understood in a collection of groups rather than individuals
Lineage groups, or clans, would have been united by blood and ancestral sacrifice
Clans seem to have shared a single occupation (clans of bronze casters, horse breeders, shepherds, executioners, etc.)
Social Class
Members of the Zi clan would hold the highest positions
Others seem to have held noble titles, including allied chieftains
Priests, craftsmen, scribes, etc, may have formed a middle class
The vast majority of the people were farmers
Economy
Cowry shells functioned as currency
Imitation cowry shells were also used
Our evidence tells us little about trade
Fu Hao (Lady Hao)
Wife of King Wuding
Appears in charge of troops, carrying out an essential mission to link her forces with those of Wuding's ally, Guo of Zhi, and coordinating a rendezvous with troops led by the king
In 1976, her tomb was discovered intact with a wealth of ritual bronze vessels, carved jade ornaments, and 7000 cowry shells, as well as the bodies of attendants and beheaded captives
Fu Hao was exceptional, not typical of royal women
China
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Getting Oriented
Geography
Table of Contents
Neolithic China
China's Mythological Past
The Shang Dynasty
The Zhou Dynasty
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