The Bronze Age in Ancient China

The earliest bronze in China was found to date from about the beginnings of the Shang dynasty, and probably represents a shift in economic and political power catalyzed by technological innovation, as is known to have happened during the Neolithic/Bronze transition in the Mediterranean region. The major Shang cities, the capital of An-Yang and two other major cities, spring up relatively suddenly, and represent a vast advance over previous urban development.

For example, the city near Chang-chou, in northern Honan, suddenly acquired a wall, 30 feet high and sixty feet wide, about 2400 feet in perimeter, surrounding an area of about 1.25 square miles. It is estimated that this wall would have taken 10,000 workers 18 years to complete, which suggests that, even though the level of technology was still relatively low, the Chinese had already devised effective ways to organize manpower. Chinese civilization begins at this time at a level approximately comparable to that of Egypt or Sumeria in about 3000 B.C. (Meskill 6-7).

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rew millet, wheat, and rice, cultivating it with wooden digging sticks. The crops may have been irrigated, although evidence of extensive irrigation systems has yet been found. Farming seemed to have been the occupation of entire village populations, and two crops a year were harvested. Domesticated animals included pigs, dogs, cattle, sheep, horses, chickens, and water buffaloes, and the farmers also fished (Meskill 9). Shang religion appears to have focused on three types of spirits or gods: the royal ancestors, earth and nature gods, and Shang-ti, who may have been a reification of the concept of sacrifice or the divinized eponymous ancestor of the Shang Dynasty. Local people sacrificed to local earth spirits; the king, as ruler of the entire Earth, sacrificed to Earth itself (Meskill 9-11). The beginning of the Chou Dynasty represented something more of a palace revolution than a change in basic technology. The Chou seized the Shang capital about 1122 (or perhaps 1027) B.C., and continued extending their conquests over yet more territory. The Western Chou period represented a general cultural continuity with the Shang, with little difference in governmental methods. The Empire was held together almost entirely by ties
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Approximate Word count = 1874
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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