The Shang Dynasty ruled a large area in northern China, about 500 miles square, that included the region of the modern Chinese capital, Beijing (bay-ZHEENG), at its northern edge. The Shang capital was at Anyang (ahn-YAHNG), situated on a plain in the Yellow River Valley, where archaeologists uncovered a vast series of graves that provided a treasure trove of information about Shang society.
Much earlier, in a. d. 281, robbers at another tomb accidentally discovered a series of records that also provided considerable details about the Shang. The king buried in the tomb had died in the 200s b. c., but his grave contained records of the much earlier Shang Dynasty written on strips of bamboo. Tied together with ribbons of silk, these strips formed long scrolls on which scribes had written detailed records. To historians, they were more precious than gold; but to the grave robbers, who set fire to a number of the strips, they were a source of light in the dark tomb. Fortunately, they did not burn them all. What remained came to be known as “the Bamboo Annals” (AN-ulz, or historical records.)
Other important historical texts that provide information about the Shang include the Book of Documents, composed during the later Chou Dynasty, and the even later Han Dynasty's Records of the Historian. From such annals have emerged a picture of a highly organized society with a complex religion. The Shang were masters of warfare, but they also excelled in their creation of jewelry using jade, a greenish gemstone that acquires a high shine when polished. They also developed the first known system of writing in China.
World History
