Shang Dynasty
YingZheng
Chinese history. With its first capital established in Bo, the Shang
moved its center of activities several times, finally settling in Yin
(present-day Xiaotun in Anyang County, Henan Province) under the king
of Pan Geng. Hence, the Shang Dynasty is also called the Yin Dynasty,
consisting of 31 kings who belonged to 17 generations.
The Shang basically followed the system of a hereditary monarchy with
the younger brother succeeding the elder one at first, and gradually
developing into the eldest-son succession system in the later period of
the Shang. This laid an important foundation for the patriarchal clan
system adopted by the following Zhou Dynasty (11th century-256BC).
The Shang is very famous for its augury and the existing Jiaguwen
(inscriptions on animal bones and tortoise shells) is the witness of
augury of the time. The ruling area of the king was limited to a small
central area, with surrounding areas belonging to princes of the royal
family and other tribes. At that time, the centralization of state
power had not yet been developed.
The Shang Dynasty inherited the tradition of astronomical phenomena
observation. Many inscriptions on animal bones and tortoise shells
discovered in Yin ruins record astronomical phenomena, including the
description of the solar and lunar eclipses, stars, and the earliest
record of new stars in the world.
Based on the Xia calendar, the Shang used a lunar calendar that was
combined with the solar year through the addition of an intercalary
month once every few years to make up the difference between a year of
12 lunar months and a solar year. The number of days in a month was
fixed at 30 for a long month and 29 for a short one. The intercalary
month was added at the end of the year as a 13th month. This is the
origin of an intercalary month in Chinese history, which laid down the
foundation for the traditional Chinese calendar. Compiling calendars
had since experienced many changes and the calculations have become
increasingly exact.
Sets of musical instruments have been unearthed in the Yin ruins,
including pottery Xun (an egg-shaped wind instrument), stone Qing
(chime stone), copper bell, copper cymbals and drum. One big stone Qing
with an embossment of a staring tiger was discovered in a tomb in
Wuguan Village in Anyang of Henan Province. It is the earliest existing
large musical instrument and also a piece of sculpture with high
artistic value.