For a very long time the historical accounts about the Shang Dynasty as found in sources as the Shiji 史記, the Zhushu jinian 竹書紀年 "Bamboo Annals" have been thought to be pure inventions. Only the discovery of oracle bone inscriptions in the region of southern Hebei province made it clear that the purported rulers of the Shang Dynasty really existed. The inscriptions on oxen scapulae or turtle plastrons (jiagu 甲骨) record process and results of royal divinations made by the Shang kings and their heighest priests (wu 巫). The inscriptions were stored in the royal archives of the Shang rulers' palace and were discovered at the turn of the century around 1900. The oracle bone inscription are not only witnesses of Shang superstition and religion but also of their system of ancestor veneration and their political and martial undertakings. The political center of the high and late Shang period was the city (guo 國) of Yin 殷 whose ruins ("Yinxu" 殷墟) were discovered at Xiaotun 小屯 (near Anyang 安陽/Hebei). This capital was Shang residence since King Pan Geng (Pangeng) 盤庚 who dominated smaller cities and states in the middle and lower Yellow River 黃河 plain (the Central Plain 中原). From there the power of the Shang kings stretched to the Shandong Peninsula in the east and and Wei River 渭水 valley in the west. Enemies of the Shang state were called fang 方 "regions", like the Tufang 土方 that roamed the northern region of Shanxi, Guifang 鬼方 and Gongfang {工/口}方 in the northwest, Qiangfang 羌方 and Quanrong 犬戎 in the west, and Yifang 夷方 and Renfang 人方 in the southeast. Although the culture of the Shang kingdom differed form the cultures in the wet and semitropical area of the Yangtse River 長江 valley and Sichuan (Sanxingdui culture 三星堆) and the steppe nomad cultures in the north, economic activities and exchanges of goods lead to the spread of common features of all cultures of Shang period China, like the casting of ritual bronze vessels. Yin as a political dominant center obtained tributes (gong 貢) from many states (bangguo 邦國) of the Yellow River plain. The Shang kingdom was thus not a sovereign dynasty that dominated a large part of ancient China but rather one state among hundreds of small city states (wanguo 萬國 "ten thousand states") with a count (bo 伯) as their leader - although apparently the strongest one for a long time. Especially under King Wu Ding (Wuding) 武丁 the Shang showed their military superiority over their neighbors and even over states that were thousand miles away from the capital. Apart from tributes, the Shang kings were able to require taxes in grain and loyalty during military campaigns. Traditional accounts According to traditional historical sources, the Shang Dynasty was founded by Tang the Perfect (Cheng Tang, Chengtang) 成湯 who defeated the depraved ruler Jie 桀 of the Xia Dynasty 夏. Jie was banished to Nanchao 南巢 in the Yangtse River region. Before this event, the Shang chieftains are said to have changed their capital eight times, after the foundation of the dynasty the kings five times changed their residence. Scholars suppose that the Shang people either was an old nomadic people that once settled down but retained the custom of temporarily changing residence, or that the Shang people was forced to move their community forced by inundations or droughts. It might also be that the Shang had to remove because stronger neighbors forced them to leave their dwellings. The second ruler, Wai Bing (Waibing) 外丙 installed Yi Yin (Yiyin) 伊尹 as his highest minister (qingshi 卿士) who served three subsequent kings but finally tried to depose King Tai Jia (Taijia) 太甲. Seven years later the king was able to kill Yi Yin but he enfeoffed his sons Yi She (Yishe) 伊陟 and Yi Fen (Yifen) 伊奮 with their meritorious father's fief. Other accounts tell us that King Tai Jia "forgot the [virtuous] way of Tang the Perfect" and was quasi imprisoned by Yi Yin in the Tong Palace 桐宮. Yi Yin thus acted as Prince Regent for the depraved king. King Tai Jia later repented his faults and was welcomed back to the court. The king's posthumous title was Taizong 太宗. Yi She was also the first to initiate relationships with the western nomad tribes (Xirong 西戎) and the "nine" southeastern barbarians (Jiuyi 九夷). Yi Yin's successor as prime minister was Qi Shan (Qishan) 咎單. With King Yong Ji (Yongji) 雍己 the Shang rulers were decadent. Yi Yin's son Yi She as prime minister of King Tai Wu (Taiwu) 太戊 (posthumous title Zhongzong 中宗) was able to conserve the power of the Shang kings over their neighbors, a success that was by the traditional historians expressed as "the feudal lords turned towards Shang" (zhuhou gui zhi 諸侯歸之). His successor was Wu Xian (Wuxian) 巫咸 (巫賢). Under King Hedan Jia (Hedanjia) 河亶甲 Shang again lost its prevalent position. King Pan Geng (Pangeng) 盤庚 is said to have moved several times the residence of Shang but finally decided to found the capital at Yin 殷. His long rule is again seen as an age of strength and prevalence for the Shang rulers. King Wu Ding's (Wuding) 武丁 prime minister (zhongzai 冢宰) was Fu Yue 傅說. The king once dreamt of Yue as an excellent advisor, had sought for him and found him as a hermit in the wildnerness. With Fu Yue's help, the king's army defeated the nomad warriors of the Guifang 鬼方 in modern northern Shaanxi. The western tribes of the Di 氐 and Qiang 羌 declared their loyalty to Shang. King Wu Ding is seen as an extremely virtuous ruler who was venerated posthumously as Gaozong 高宗 "High Ancestor". Wu Ding is also the first Shang king who is historically documented. King Wu Yi (Wuyi) 武乙 enfeoffed Dan Fu (Danfu), Duke of Gu, 古公亶父, ancestor of the Zhou 周, with the fief of Qi 岐 in the Wei River valley. The counts of Zhou were militarily very active and fought against the western nomad warrior tribes. But their rulers regularly visited the royal court of Shang. Ji Li (Jili) 季歷, count of Zhou, obviously becoming a political threat, was killed by King Wen Ding (Wending) 文丁. Shortly after, like the historical sources report, phoenixes assembled in Qi, the capital of Zhou, an omen that clearly signified the blessing of the Zhou rulers. King Di Xin (Dixin) 帝辛 (better known as Zhou 紂), last depraved ruler of the Shang, enticed by his consort Da Ji (Daji) 妲己, daughter of the noble Yousu 有蘇 and in later novels (Fengshen yanyi 封神演義 "Creation of the Gods") thought to be a fox spirit, should be the end of the long line of Shang kings. He imprisoned the Count of the West (Xibo 西伯), chieftain of the Zhou, and only relieved him six years later (compare the case of Ji Li some decades before). Ji Chang 姬昌 (later King Zhou Wenwang 周文王), founder-father of the Zhou Dynasty, assembled other counts and marquises with him and won Lü Shang 呂尚 (known as Jiang Ziya 姜子牙) as his highest general. The armies of Zhou crossed the ford at Mengjin 孟津 and began to attack King Zhou of Shang after he had incarcerated Prince Jizi 箕子, killed his son Bi Gan (Bigan) 比干; Prince Weizi 微子 had escaped. At the battle of Muye 牧野 the Zhou armies defeated the last of the Shang, king Zhou of Shang burned himself on his beautiful terrace. The rulers of Zhou had taken over the control over the Central Plain. Prince Weizi was enfeoffed as ruler of the fiefdom of Song. Prince Wu Geng (Wugeng) 武庚 still rebelled against the new king, Ji Fa 姬發, King Wuwang of Zhou 周武王. In their self-interpretation, the counts (later kings) of Zhou received the Heavenly mandate (tianming 天命) and the duty to occupy the place of the "Son of Heaven" (tianzi 天子). King Zhou of Shang instead was seen as a brutal tyrant who killed his own son, murdered his loyal ministers by cruel punishments (burning pillar, baoge zhi fa 炮格之法) and followed the wishes of his beloved concubine Da Ji. Thus the Shang Dynasty is defined by Chinese historians as one period within a cycle of dynastic succession. The first ruler, Tang the Perfect, was a human and virtuous ruler. This "royal way" declined and was finally lost by a last ruler who had to be replaced by a new dynasty. This cycle was projected back to the mythical Xia Dynasty 夏. Together with the Zhou Dynasty, Xia and Shang are part of the Three Ages (Sandai 三代). Although the oracle bone inscriptions showed that traditional Chinese historians had a certain knowledge of the Shang kings and the order of their succession, they did not report much about the real events that took place during the several hundred years of the Shang domination. Such details and our knowledge of Shang society, economy, culture and religion can only be reconstructed from archeological discoverings. Archeological discoveries and evidences Two important archeological sources are the oracle bone inscriptions and the inscriptions on hundreds of ritual bronze vessels that were discovered throughout China. Such literary witnesses can only serve to reconstruct the last third of the Shang period when the Chinese script came into use. The technology of bronze casting required labour division within the Shang period society. Such a social stratification, the organisation of workshops for bronze casting, jade carving, scapulimantic activities (divination with bones) and other technical work required by the state make it evident that the partially fortified cities discovered in the Yellow River plain and beyond were inhabited by peoples with a sophisticated culture and with a social stratification with a group of nobility and working people: for Marxist historians a clear proof for the existance of a slave-holder society (nubi shehui 奴婢社會). Archeological discoveries make clear that about 1500 BC a major state had taken shape in the Yellow River Plain and probably ruled over large territories occupied by smaller and weaker states (guo 國) and communities. The power of this state shrank about 1300 BC, and the Yellow River plain became a network of various interacting states that culturally had about the same level. Only the dynasty ruling the city that later was called Yin (modern Anyang; the name of Yin is not mentioned in oracle bone inscriptions) made use of a script and was thus the only ruling house surviving in historical accounts. Erlitou Culture: Although the oldest discoveries of casted ritual bronze vessels were unearthed in Gansu province from cultures called Qijia 齊家 and Huoshaogou 火燒溝 cultures, the Erlitou Culture 二里頭 (1900-1350 BC) near Luoyang 洛陽/Henan was the first to introduce industrial casting of bronze vessels, a craft that was not evidently imported from the west. In the Near East where the bronze age began about the same time as in East Asia, metalwork was made by hammering while in China the abundancy of metal ores and of workforce made it possible to rely extensively on casting techniques. There are not much traces left of the palaces and the burial sites of the ruling class of Erlitou. The findings within the Erlitou tombs like jade, turquoise and cowry shells give evidence of a widespread trade system. Pounding earth (hangtu 夯土) for the buildings and tombs and casting the bronze vessels required sophisticated labor organization and a social stratification. The oldest bronze vessels were simple transformations of traditional pottery shapes (ding 鼎, jue 爵) into a new material, but later vessels clearly show that artisans invented new types and shapes especially convening with the new material of bronze (qingtong 青銅). The Erlitou culture shows the transgression from the neolithic age to the bronze age. In tombs archeologists have discovered clay and bronze vessels, jade and bronze daggers (ge 戈), lacquered wooden coffins, animal bones for divination, and traces of human sacrifices (renxun 人殉). Although the Erlitou city itself did not have a city wall, there are pounded earth walls in contemporary communities like Chengziyai 城子崖 (near Jinan 濟南/Shandong). The palace compound with the main hall in the north is very similar to neolithic founds, and likewise the deep tomb shafts with a shelf around the shaft base (a construction called ercengtai 二層臺 "two-layer terrace") is the continuation of a traditional neolithic pattern. Beneath the coffin was a sacrificial pit (yaokeng 腰坑) filled with funeral offering articles. The bronze vessels in the tomb probably contained food and wine for the posthumous life of the buried lord. The jades discovered in Erlitou tombs are likewise traditional neolithic daggers, tubes (cong 琮) and disks (bi 璧). The Erlitou culture was very widespread and it is hence difficult to describe the political status of the Erlitou community in prehistorical China. Items found in the tombs that are not available in the Central Plain must have been bought or traded from outside. Recently historians begin to identify the Erlitou Culture with the semi-mythical Xia Dynasty. Erligang Culture: In the fifteenth century BC the Erligang Culture 二里岡 near Zhengzhou 鄭州/Henan became an outstanding culture that demonstrated its superiority over neighbouring cultures and its political power by state ceremonies during which ritual bronze vessels played an important role. The wide geographical distribution of the findings of bronze vessels shows at least cultural spread, technological dissemination and probably political influence on neighboring states. The rapid expansion of the Erligang state spread technical and political knowledge to other communities in the Yangtse region. But these communities soon developed their own artistical styles and adapted bronze casting technologies to their own cultural needs (casting of bells and drums) and tastes. The Erligang period is restricted to two centuries (15th-13th cent. BC) of rapid expansion and sudden decline of political influence over prehistory China's center and south. Unfortunately a great part of the Erligang community is buried under a modern city and can not systematically been excavated. At least we know that the city of the Erligang Culture was protected by a wall made from stamped earth and a large trench. Pillars of Erligang buildings and palaces were standing on stone bases to prevent them from rotting. Archeologists have excavated a number of workshops for tools, weapons and bronze vessels, all outside the city wall. Only a few modest tombs could be excavated, all with very few bronze vessels, jade objects and human sacrifices at tomb offerings, the richest being a grave at Baijiazhuang 白家莊 - all in contrast to the richly furnished large tombs of the Anyang site. Although we miss rich archeological findings we must be sure from the size of the town that Erligang was an important cultural and political center from about 1500 to 1300 BC. For the 15th century we can observe the spread of Erligang Culture to various places in ancient China. But from the 14th century on these places all develop their native cultures with own styles and customs. Other cultural centers: Other places that are connected to the Erligang Culture like Panlongcheng 盤龍城/Hubei, hundreds of kilometers south of Erliang, show how widespread the culture and power of Erligang (probably identical with the capital city of Ao 隞 in the traditional accounts) was. Panlongcheng must have been something like a fortified colony to assure the ore transport to the political center at Erligang. Findings of bronze vessels and burial customs are identical to the findings in the north. Furthermore, the tombs at Panlongcheng and Lijiazui 李家嘴 are filled with much more funeral offerings than in Erligang herself. Bronzes were cast locally outside the city walls in the workshops of craftsmen that probably came from the north. The spread of Erligang bronzes in such a wide area makes it plausible that the rulers of Erligang conquered quite a large territory or at least made the local rulers subservient. Even more to the south, at Xin'gan 新干(新淦)/Jiangxi we find the traces of the Wucheng Culture 吳城, whose relicts are in style partially identical to the northern relicts but on the other hand show clear evidence of a local genuine style in vessel types as well as in decoration. The rulers of the Yangtse valley thus can not have been simple fiefholders of the northern rulers. In Wucheng archeologists even found pots made from a primitive kind of porcelain, some of the sherds inscribed with unreadable characters. A tomb discovered at Xin'gan is the second richest of the early bronze age, only surpassed by the tomb of Fu Hao (Fuhao) 婦好, consort of King Wu Ding 武丁, in Anyang. The bronzes of Xin'gan are characterized by a richer decoration with new types of pattern not used in Erligang bronzes. Furthermore, this southern tomb uses much more pottery than northern tombs, the bronze vessels types of ding 鼎 and li 鬲 are prevalent, and the tomb contains bells (nao 鐃 and bo 鎛 type) not found in the north. Findings in Anhui, Hebei and Shaanxi from the end of the Erligang period are witnesses of a diversification in styles and types and thus of the multi-centered character of this historical period. After the end of an expansive period of Erligang Culture and before the begin of the Anyang Culture archeologists speak of a transition period. Although there existed various cultural centers, all these city states had intensive contact as the findings in tombs show. The Huai River 淮水 region was inhabited by people whose traces were found as bronze vessels unearthed from Funan 阜南 and Feixi 肥西/Anhui. Near modern Beijing tombs were unearthed at Pinggu 平谷 and Taixicun 臺西村 that show no great diversity in the shape and decoration of bronze vessels but pottery with features distinctive from the Central Plain. In southern Shaanxi, at Chenggu 城固, vessels of extremely high quality have been unearthed - like the above sites an accidental find. Some bronze vessel and weapon types might derive from Xin'gan types in the south. Anyang Culture: Around 1200 B.C. begins the historical period of Anyang 安陽 (by older archeologists called Yinxu 殷墟, "Wastes of Yin"), the actual site of the Shang ruling house. The first ruler whose name appears in the oracle bone inscriptions is Wu Ding (Wuding) 武丁. He ruled over a large, unwalled city and was buried with great pomp. Unfortunately his tomb was looted, but the burial site of his consort Fu Hao (Fuhao) 婦好 was unearthed wholly intact. The two tombs - like all the tombs who are sited in a wide graveyard-like area around Wuguancun 武官村, Xibeigang 西北岡 and Houjiazhuang 侯家莊 - contained not only a multitude of burial offerings like bronze vessels, jade and chariots (that must have been imported from the steppe peoples) but also dozens of in some cases beheaded sacrificial human victims (renxun 人殉) and sacrified animals like horses and dogs. The bloodiness of Shang burial rites can be compared with the Aztec sacrificial slaughter, but they left no trace in the memory of the following Zhou Dynasty. In the Zhou moralist's eyes, the last depraved rulers of the Shang have been lustful, not bloody. There are only a few hints in Zhou period literature where human sacrifices are mentioned, and the writers and philosophers propose to replace them with human-like figurines. From the oracle bone inscriptions we can observe that in the last few decades of the Yin period the Shang state enjoyed a quite peaceful time. While during the reign of King Wu Ding (Wuding) there were many military campaigns against the Tufang and Gongfang, the kings of Yin might have lost their influence on communities in modern Shanxi and Shaanxi. Interference into the politics of the peoples and states living in this area was beyond the Yin king's sphere. Surprisingly, the last kings of Yin do not rely on friendly lords as their allies in wartime. One former ally, Zhou 周, had become an enemy and suddenly took over the control of the Central Plain in the mid of the 11th century BC. Although the area where ritual bronze vessels were casted during the Anyang period is much larger than before, the types and decorations of the various regions show a great diversity. The vessels of the Yangtse region are the first to show real animal shape of elephants or rhinoceroses (no more fabulous stylized "dragons" or taotie 饕餮 masks of voracious monsters), a pattern adopted later by the Zhou artisans. Nao bells from Ningxiang 寧鄉/Hunan are extremely huge compared with the Anyang bells of Fu Hao's tomb. Unknown to the north are also the large bronze drums like that of Chongyang/Hubei. Even more outstanding are the findings from Sichuan (Sanxingdui 三星堆) that enclose richer burying offerings like gold and elephant tusks. The shape of the bronzes, especially anthropomorph tools or masks, are without counterpart in the other parts of China and are thus of a distinctively native character. The Sanxingdui bronzes show no contact with the Anyang or Erligang types, and there was obviously no continuation of the typical Sanxingdui motifs after the begin of the Zhou period. In Sanxingdui tombs there are also no human sacrifices like in the north. Obviously there was only little relationship with the Anyang culture but intensive contact to the Middle Yangtse valley. In Shandong in Sufutun 蘇埠屯 the largest tomb outside of Anyang was discovered, abundantly supplied with human sacrifices. Sufutun had close relationships with Anyang or was even a kind of colony. The Wei River 渭水 valley, the region of the Zhou conquestors, shows no sophisticated culture but instead seems to be an eager recipient of Erligang, Anyang, southern and northern-siberian cultures. Although archeologists tried to find a trace of a proto-Zhou culture this task seems not to be solvable because of the abundancy of archeological relics of different cultures. The Zhou people thus might have been a mixture of different cultural cradles, including nomad warriors from the west. Like the state of Qin 秦 later, the Zhou rulers might have obtained an excellent training in military techniques by the permanent challenge of nomad raiders within their territory. In China's north that was inhabited by nomad peoples, casting of ritual bronze vessels was not as important as that of weapons and other tools for daily use. There seems to be no deep influence of Erligang bronze casting techniques, and some historians assume the arrival of new peoples at the end of the Erligang period that made use of gold rather than bronze. Around 1200 the chariot comes in use in the Anyang region - clearly an influence by such new nomad immigrants. Vice versa, these nomad peoples accepted some bronze tool types from the Anyang culture, like mirrors, daggers, axes or some types of vessels. But the northern types of daggers and battle axes also occur in Anyang tombs. The mixture of archeological findings in the north and in Shanxi proves that this region was inhabited by peoples of different societies, cultures and economies that lived side-by-side and as neighbors. The archeological discoveries make evident that pre-Zhou China was not ruled by a single state or a Shang Dynasty as supposed by the traditional historiographic sources. Early bronze age China instead was inhabited by numerous communities with different cultural traditions of whom several proved to be politically superior and were able to dominate a larger territory for a certain time, like the Erligang Culture and the Anyang Culture. When the Zhou conquered ancient China from the west, they inherited parts of the political and cultural institutions of the Shang rulers in Yin, like calendar, script, and the religion of ancestor veneration. It was the Zhou historiography and tradition that blinded out all other cultures of the late 2nd millenium BC and purported a single universal dynasty, the Shang, that ruled over the Central Plain and whose kingdom was inherited by the Zhou kings. But in fact, cultural diversity was a phenomenon that not only dominated the landscape of early bronze age China but also the subsequent long period of the Zhou Dynasty.

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