In addition to the king and the priests, another important force in Shang society consisted of the royal consorts (KAHN-sohrtz), or wives. The role of the consorts is particularly interesting, because China, like most societies, did not grant women a particularly high social status; yet consorts were powerful and could even serve as military leaders. One of the more well-known consorts from Shang history was Fu Hao (foo HOW). She was probably one of the more than sixty-four wives of Shang ruler Wu Ting (woo DEENG), but she was especially powerful, shown by the great wealth of objects—includ-ing nineteen sacrificed human beings— in her tomb.
Other important figures in palace life included princes and officials. Because political and religious authority in Shang China were virtually inseparable, princes had the authority to perform religious rituals (ceremonies), as did consorts. Officials took on a variety of functions, acting as ministers in charge of specific areas of government or overseeing lower officials. The highly organized Shang state already had a well-developed bureaucracy (byoo-RAHK-ruh-see), a network of officials and lower-ranking workers who ran the state.
Beyond the areas directly ruled by the king, there were regions controlled by noblemen, or nobles, who exercised power over their areas but who also submitted to the authority of the Shang ruler. The Shang ruler maintained his position of strength with an army that numbered in the tens of thousands. The Shang used infantry (IN-fun-tree), or foot soldiers, as well as archers and chariots. A Shang chariot squadron consisted of five horse-drawn wagons, each with a driver, an archer, and a soldier bearing a battle axe. They must have been a frightening sight to enemies.
The Shang were not what one would describe as “a gentle people.” Their legal system prescribed punishments that included mutilation or castration, as well as the tattooing of the face and forehead. On the other hand, there is evidence that people who had been convicted of a crime sometimes received a pardon from the king.
Nonetheless, it is clear that the Shang did not place a high emphasis on giving kindness to the poor or the weak. Shang China was a land in which the people tilled the earth with stone tools and lived in cavelike dwellings while the emperor and nobles enjoyed great luxury. In building their palaces, the wealthy and powerful would often command human sacrifices in order to ensure the gods' favor on their houses. These victims did not always come from the lower classes of Shang China, however: often they were prisoners captured in war. It appears that in a single ancestor-worship ceremony, the Shang sacrificed some 3,000 prisoners.
It should be pointed out, however, that while few ancient civilizations other than those in the Americas practiced human sacrifice, Shang China was probably no more harsh a place to live than most parts of the world during the period from c. 1700 to c. 1000 b. c. Not only was the caste system taking effect in India during the same era, it was a time when, according to the Bible, the Egyptians enslaved the Israelites; and when the Israelites, after escaping from Egypt,
World History
