Social Life in the Shang Dynasty

The Shang rulers moved the capital to Yin (present Anyang of Henan Province) in late Shang dynasty (1600 B.C.-1046 B.C.), and the history and social life of the Shang dynasty were known to the public mainly through the cultural relics unearthed from Yin Ruins, including inscriptions on the oracle bones, bronze wares, potteries, bone wares and stone wares. What attracted the historians most were the inscriptions on the oracle bones (over 100,000 pieces), which were used by the ancient imperial soothsayers for divining the future of a person or a country.

The imperial soothsayers dug a small hole on one side of a bone (not penetrating) and toasted it near the burning fire, and they divined the future of a man, a country and the universe when the other side of the bone cracked. At last, they carved the oracle inscriptions on the turtle shells or animal bones. What was interesting, the oracle inscriptions were mostly concerned to the ancestral worshipping rites and the number of animals used in a sacrificial rite in the Shang dynasty, and some were related to atmospheric conditions (such as rain, wind and snow), some were related with the harvest of agriculture, some were with regard to war, and some were in respect to the dreams and diseases of human beings, from which we could know much information about the Shang dynasty.

The Shang people heavily depended on agriculture industry and fed on wheat, rice, glutinous millets and soybeans, and the farming work was mainly done by manpower and the ploughs were used as the main farming tools. Fishing and hunting also were employed as a sideline by the Shang people, whose preys ranged from wild boars, deer, foxes, rabbits to pheasants. What was more, the Shang people tamed the wild animals into livestock as well, including cows, sheep, chickens, dogs, pigs and elephants, and it was recorded that the elephants were sent by the ancient Shang people to war. The Shang people were very good at making bronze wares, which was proved by a number of swords, spearheads, armors, knives, arrows and axes well-preserved in Yin (Anyang) Ruins, and most bronze wares for the imperial and noble families were decorated with florid designs.

Besides various bronze wares, a series of animal patterns and geometric drawings were decorated on the potteries as well, which were rather rough but vivid. The Shang people were also expert at tooth carvings, bone carvings, jade carvings and stone carvings, which were in the forms of human figures, tigers, rabbits, fishes, birds, dragons, turtles, elephants and phoenixes.

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