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Shang dynasty

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The Houmuwu Ding is one of the heaviest and most famous bronze vessels from ancient China, showcasing impressive craftsmanship from the Shang Dynasty.

The Ancient Shang People

A long time ago, there was a special group of people called the Shang dynasty. They lived in the Yellow River valley in China. The Shang came after the Xia dynasty and were followed by the Western Zhou dynasty.

We learn about the Shang from old books like the Book of Documents, Bamboo Annals, and Shiji. Archaeologists found many important things at a place called Yinxu, near today’s Anyang. This was the last capital of the Shang.

At Yinxu, people found many objects made of bronze, jade, stone, bone, and clay. The most exciting discovery was the oldest known examples of Chinese writing. These writings are mostly on oracle bones, which are usually turtle shells or ox scapulae. People used these bones to ask questions about the future. More than 20,000 oracle bones were found, and many more have been found since then.

The Shang people were very clever. They made beautiful bronze items and wrote on bones to tell the future. They lived a long time ago, but we still learn about them today from the things they left behind.

Images

Ancient Chinese jade statue of a standing dignitary from the Shang Dynasty, displayed at the Arthur M. Sackler Museum.
An ancient jade carving of a deer from China's Shang dynasty.
An ancient jade figure from the Shang Dynasty, discovered in the tomb of Fu Hao in Anyang, China.
Ancient oracle bones from the Shang Dynasty in China, featuring early Chinese writing used for divination.
An ancient tortoise shell from China's Shang dynasty, used for telling the future by reading cracks made with heat.
Reconstruction of the ancient tomb of Lady Fu Hao at Yinxu, Henan, China.
Ancient Chinese writing from the Late Shang Dynasty about horses, showing early script used for recording information.
An ancient bronze vessel from the Shang Dynasty, on display at a museum.
An ancient bronze ding vessel from the Late Shang Dynasty, on display at the Shanghai Museum.
An ancient bronze wine vessel from China's Shang Dynasty, showcasing intricate design and historical craftsmanship.
Ancient bronze face masks from China's Shang Dynasty, showcasing intricate designs from over 3,000 years ago.
This “商-oracle-Shang.svg” vector image is depicting the character 商 in the Shang oracle script style. It can be drawn with 10 pen strokes. See also Wiktionary: en, fr, ja, zh.
Map of Shang Dynasty from Bamboo Annals

Related articles

Yellow River
Anyang

This article is a child-friendly adaptation of the Wikipedia article on Shang dynasty, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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