The Shang Dynasty

Don't expect the current pace of updates to last - I'm going to blow through the first three dynasties in short order, and then spend some amount of time on the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods.

As is however, let our examination into Chinese history continue with the Shang Dynasty!

The Shang Dynasty is the first Dynasty where we have archaeological and written records of its existence. The most famous of these are the oracle bones which were usually carved onto ox bones or turtle shells, and have on them ancient Chinese characters. These were used mainly as, the name would imply, divination, seeing into the future.

An Oracle Bone

The Shang Dynasty is said to have ruled from 1600BCE to 1046BCE, according to the Xia-Shang-Zhou Chronology Project.

I ended the last blog post with a rather vague statement about the last King of Xia being a tyrant. Well let's see what the Chinese myths have to say about him.

King Jie of Xia is supposed to have lived a lavish lifestyle with a lot of slaves, and treated his people with cruelty. He is said to have been infatuated with a concubine called Mo Xi, who (as a running theme in these early Chinese Dynastical failings) was fair of flesh but had no virtues. She liked to drink, and according to myth, she had Jie build her a lake filled with wine. He apparently had his food carted in from the corners of the Kingdom, and had people beheaded who messed with his food. Guy was in love with his eating!

Here he is, riding around with a halberd and being carried by two women. #AncientSwag

Sadly for him, his opponents in the Kingdom of Shang were growing in power, and in the 39th year of Jie's reign, he was demolished in the Battle of Mingtiao, and up rose the Shang as the dominant power in the Chinese heartland. Jie himself escaped and fled, was captured at Jiaomen, and deposed him. He was released to Nanchao, and eventually died of illness.

The first king of the Shang dynasty was King Tang of Shang, and his was a good one.

I mentioned in the previous post that the Xia dynasty is probably mythic, but I do find it possible that Jie of Xia existed. It's probable that a kingdom of some kind existed concurrent with the Shang, and were likely rather powerful. The Battle of Mingtiao may well have happened, and the Kingdom of Xia may have eventually evolved into the Xia Dynasty in Chinese folklore. Regardless, let's now take a look at the Shang Dynasty's development.

The Shang Dynasty moved its capital five times, the last time to Yin in the reign of Pan Gang, following which evolved the 'Golden Age' of the Dynasty. Bronze working developed over the course of the Shang Dynasty, with Bronze weapons being integrated into use as part of the Shang infantry. The ge or dagger-axe emerged as a weapon during the Shang Dynasty's reign.

One of these, but on a stick. That's a ge.

There's not a lot else to be said about the Shang, apart from the myths about the end of the Dynasty.

The last King of Shang was King Zhou of Shang, born Di Xin. He ruled from 1075BCE to 1046BCE. It gets kind of confusing at this point, because King Zhou of Shang was overthrown by King Wu of Zhou, but we'll get to that later. Anyway, King Zhou of Shang was said to have been pretty awesome early in life, able to win all his arguments and strong enough to hunt beasts with his bare hands. He is said to have expanded the territory of the Shang in a series of campaigns against the Dongyi to the East.

Later in life, he, surprise surprise, took to drinking, sex, and a complete lack of morals. He hosted a tonne of orgies and various other activities, and in legends, he was said to have, guess what? fallen in love with a wicked concubine called Daji. And guess what he did to impress her? He built a lake, and filled it with wine! But not only that, he had an island made in the middle of it, and put a bunch of trees there, and stuck meat to them.

Going on a tangent for a moment, given that China has such a long history, you'd think their myth makers would be a bit more creative when it came to showing how decadent someone is. Having two freaking Dynasties ending with a King who made a lake full of wine is both lazy and boring. Come on, Ancient Chinese dudes, get your act together.

Anyway, all this partying didn't go down well with his subjects, and eventually King Wu of Zhou put together an army, kicked King Zhou of Shang's ass to next week in the Battle of Muye. King Zhou was like "Well fuck you all", gathered his treasures together in his palace, and then set fire to himself and his palace and died with his treasure.

We'll return to the rise of the Zhou next time. Hope you enjoyed this post!

The Beginning

Hello! This is going to be a blog that I'll be maintaining, probably haphazardly, largely dealing with Chinese history. As most readers are probably aware, China has a long and storied history, dating back (depending on who you ask) between four and five thousand years. Throughout that vast span of time, the Chinese historical canon sees the rise and fall of heroes and tyrants, emperors and kings. The history of CHina saw the rise and fall of 11 or 12 great Dynasties (again depending on who you ask), wedged between times of great chaos and the splitting of the Empire. Indeed, the opening line of Luo Guanzhong's famed Romance of the Three Kingdoms is as follows:

話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分

Translated, it means “It is a general truism of the world, that that which is long united must divide, and that which is long divided must unite”.

If any general trends were to be seen in Chinese history, that truism must be at the forefront.

I will start this blog with an examination into what is considered by most Chinese to be the first Dynasty – the Xia Dynasty.

The Xia Dynasty is one which is shrouded in myth. No written record can be traced to the time period in which it was reputed to have existed – starting between 2205BCE and 1989BCE, and ending between 1766BCE and 1558BCE. As such, many modern scholars discount the Xia Dynasty as having existed at all.

Why then begin the blog with an examination into a Dynasty that may not have even existed? Because even if it were true that the Xia was a story invented by the Zhou as has been contended by some scholars, the Xia remains an important part of Chinese history, even as a foundational myth.¹

The Xia Dynasty was supposedly founded by Yu the Great, who must have been an awesome guy indeed to be granted the posthumous epithet of ‘The Great’. What was so great about him?

Chinese Heartland, or the Central Plains. We'll be seeing a lot of this area.

Well, according to myth, the Chinese heartland (which is located in the Yellow River basin, in modern day Henan, South Hebei, the southern part of Shanxi and the western part of Shandong provinces) was at the time of his life inundated with constant flooding and other water related unpleasantness. Yu’s father had spent nine years trying to control the flooding, building a large network of dikes and dams along the banks of the Yellow River. His plan failed, and he was duly executed. (Or not, depending on the version of the story you read).  As such, the task was left to Yu. Yu had different ideas to his poor old dad, and decided to build a bunch of irrigation channels and the like, rather than damming the flood itself.

The result of all this work? Chinese myth and traditional history credit Yu with the creation of the agricultural society that graces China for the next four thousand years.

 Historically, the story is generally thought to be an allegory for successive settlements on the Yellow River which steadily shifted towards agricultural pursuits.² Yu ascended the throne after it was bequeathed to him by Shun, who deemed him the most worthy. Yu in turn handed it to his son, beginning the Dynastical tradition of inheritance deeming succession, not ability. The last king of the Xia, Jie, was said to be corrupt, and was overthrown by Tang, the first king of the Shang Dynasty.

As said above, the Xia Dynasty is shrouded in myth. Most historians tend to think it as fictional, but it is still deemed to be the first Dynasty in most lists of Dynasties.

1. The Shape of the Turtle: Myth, Art and Cosmos in Early China, Sarah Allan

2. David Hawkes