Shang and Zhou Dynasty - Coursework Example

Shang and Zhou Dynasty Shang and Zhou Dynasty The first dynasty in China, the Shang dynasty, evolved to become a well-established community governed by hereditary caliber consisting of a class of aristocrats. Society of Shang was headed by a king who was a priest and had two major classes of individuals. The two classes were famously known as comers and nobles. The longest ruling dynasty was the Zhou dynasty. The Zhou just like the Shang existed in the society with three classes of people known as comers, slaves and aristocrats. Some historians argue that Zhou government was and still is a feudal system. The Shang and Zhou dynasties cover the era between 1700 and 250 BC. They were famously known for their use of bronze and jade, and for their well-trained armies and constant use of human sacrifice. One may wonder: what made the two communities rich, strong and powerful? What still make these communities to be heard in the society? These two dynasties of China are the first dynasties for which there are several historical records. Historically, Shang is the first dynasty in China. Shang dynasty emerged after the Xia dynasty of which history slightly touches on and before the Zhou dynasty. This discourse will try find out the historical background of Shang and Zhou dynasties while exploring several happenings during their dynasties. These two dynasties started as semi nomadic tribes that habituated the western side of Shang kingdom. Their nomadic lifestyle prepared them to work with different people who had different cultures. Somewhere around 1040 B.C Zhou conquered Shang during a war fare. To their advantage, Zhou got loyalty of the disaffected cities. Therefore, the Shang collapsed their morals; Zhou took advantage of this and took over Shang dynasty. This made Zhou adopt Shang lifestyle to an extent of applying Shang artisan techniques. Due to their nature of artistic lifestyle, Shang dynasty was well known to practice their art work in a distinctive manner. They majorly got engaged in bronze casting where ceramics were modeled and were used to serve food and wine to their ancestors back in those days. Another distinctive lifestyle is their fully developed writing structure. The state of development and complexity in most of their writings explicitly portrayed early development period which is not attested up to today (Dani 1996). The most discussed distinctive and characteristic image was decoration which was majorly done to the bronze vessel known as taotie. Based on ancient dynasties, the Zhou who had adopted Shang lifestyles and dynasty devised ways they used to justify conquering of the Shang. In their rationalization, the idea of “heaven” came from Zhou leaders. The idea of heaven was perceived to be a supernatural deity whose function was to oversee life, furnish earthly leaders with mandate and to ensure that vote of confidence was available. Its idea was very long; he leads well and with justice then in turn maintains all mandates that belonged to him. The Zhou employed this so as to justify that the duly chosen ruler would provide protection to the whole society including the Shang from invaders. During Zhou dynasty tenure, there were major events that took place in two different stages. The stages were the era when Zhou leadership was relatively peaceful and the second one is the period of feudal state when the Zhou themselves started fighting one another for the sake of prominence. These events were associated with intensification of inventions, especially iron technology, agriculture, growth of commerce and urbanization as well as bureaucracy development. It is very clear that the Zhou dynasty was the longest prevailing dynasty in China’s history. Its survival tactics depended on adopting different lifestyles from other dynasties. Zhou acquired skills such as art and writing from the Shang dynasty. The other factor that made them serve longer was their mode of worship which entailed worshiping stars and the sun. In as much as there is indecision as to when metallurgy started in ancient China, several reasons are available to believe that bronze working in early days developed autonomously, regardless of external influences. Whenever one mention the Bronze age of China, he or she is not referring to any other era but the era of Zhou and Shang, this is because bronze which is an alloy of tin and copper, used to fashion and decorate weapons, ritual vessels and parts of Chariots; this made bronze play an important role in materialistic culture at that time. Iron came into picture towards the end of the period; this was during the Eastern Zhou dynasty. The earliest bronze from China were made by a method famously known as piece mold casting as contrasted to the lost wax technique which was applied in all other Bronze Age values. In the piece mold casting technique, a model is created of the object to be cast and clay mold obtained on the model. Cutting is done on the mold into sections to have the model. The sections are rearranged after firing to have the mold for casting. In case the object to be cast is a vessel, a core is placed inside the mold to give vessel’s cavity. Piece mold method was likely to be the only technique used in old China until at least the end of Shang dynasty. One advantage of this rather cumbersome technique way of casting bronze was that the decorative designs could be embossed directly on the inner apparent of the mold before it is fired (Hansen & Curtis 2010). The technique enabled bronze workers achieve high degree of definition and sharpness in even most complex designs. To the South, North and East of Shang, civilized individuals were considered barbaric including farmers along the Yangzi River. Armies were always sent by the emperors to repulse invaders; Shang emperors went ahead to capture and plunder foreigners needed for sacrifices to their gods. Tombs belonging to emperors that were left uncovered during Shang dynasty reveals that they could put about three to five thousand soldiers in the field. Buried together with the emperors were personal spears and ornaments with bronze blades and the remains which comprised arrows and bows. Horses and chariots for transporting soldiers to the battle were also buried in the same tomb. The rule of Shang was continuously threatened by external and internal forces in the empire. Zhou led an alliance of neighboring people that saw civilization take place on Shang community. The Shang emperor was hit by tribal wars and internal wrangling that made Zhou to take advantage and overpowered Shang. Zhou dynasty emperors started ruling what had been Shang’s civilization. Their argument was that all the lands and the occupants were their subjects. After realizing that the lands conquered were too large for one man to control, the Zhou emperors settled on dividing these lands into kinship segments, designating rule perhaps to a tribal lord who allied with them against the Shang. Each kinship ruler had all the lands at his disposal. He commanded his own militia. Local rulers received gifts such as servants, bronze weapons, animals and chariots from Zhou emperors. The title lord (gong) was given to local rulers. The gong passed their positions to their sons making their lord title hereditary. To manage their leadership well, the local rulers recruited sub-rulers who had dominated people in a particular territory for them to succeed in their leadership. A hierarchy of obligations and status emerged within and among families. Older brothers ranked higher than younger brothers; rules of succession as to which of the male brothers was to head the family was an issue that needed close attention and advice. In case a married aristocrat could be infatuated by another woman, instead of driving the wife from home, the other woman would be brought into the family as a concubine. The new wife would be ranked beneath the initial woman. In getting to understand Chinese religious system, it is necessary not to take terms at face value. The word religion or in other terms “zongjiao” never existed in Chinese lexicon until early 19th century. Analyzing the complexity of Chinese belief is very crucial to understanding that shaped China. Shang always centered on ancestral worship: giving honor to their ancestors through rituals such as giving wine and food to the dead. Zhou believed and upheld Daoism, Confucianism and Legalism. Two traditions that instigated in ancient China, and still continue to date, are ancestor divinations and worship. Ancestral worship involves worshiping and praying to family members who lived before any present person, but are now resting in the dead. Two major practices that originate from these two dynasties to the current history are ancestral rites, undertaken in collaboration with ancestral divination and cult. Even though they seem not to be unique to Chinese cultural practices, they have ousted many other beliefs. Ancestral rites were also practiced at family and local level. Just the way it is common in the current era, it used to be well known and many embraced the ritual. Ancestral shrines and temples in villages and towns were always dedicated to people who in turn became deities though legends about their deaths and lives. Most homes never had altar meant for wood plaques or names of the deceased written on a separate paper. Divination, the culture of using magic or omen powers to distinguish activities in the supernatural world; this has been a shortcut for the Chinese, especially when making decisions. This was a cult that was majorly practiced by both the Shang and Zhou. It was even more evident when they offered sacrifices before going to wars. They believed that whenever they perform these rites then their gods would be with them at the battle field. Whether it entails inclusion of inscriptions on tortoise shells or animal bones during the Shang and Zhou periods or even making use of wood blocks to understand ancestor’s response or deity in the current temples and homesteads, negotiating the major three echelons of underworld, earth and heaven through divinity contributes a point of continuity in China’s religious culture. The worship was based on five major ideas 1. The world is majorly divided into three categories: heaven, earth, and the underworld. These levels are connected to each other. 2. An individual is not only connected to father and mother, but all the relatives from the distant past. 3. Human body is made up of two souls only. One soul, referred to as the hun , only rises when a person dies. The other soul called the po, turns to be a ghost. 4. A person should give offering in terms of gifts to their ancestors found in heaven, to demonstrate respect. Most of these gifts included meat and wine. It was a norm that gifts are placed out in nature, perhaps at along a river or bottom of a mountain. It was very imperative for the king to give these gifts, to safeguard a good year ahead. It was believed that not giving these gifts could lead to natural disasters, like famines or floods. Ancestor worship was practiced in the village and among family members. In the village, both in the past and present, it was usual to find temples built for ancestors. Ancestors were worshiped in such places by villagers who could go to these places. Most homes had an altar to hold wood or paper which the names of dead relatives had written on them. 5. Shamans are responsible for helping balance the different worlds. Shamans are priests or priestesses who use magic to control events, cure the sick, and predict the future. They also perform rituals to make sure the hun and po got good treatment. Shamans are considered experts in the art of divination. Divination is using magic powers to understand what is happening in the supernatural world. Shamans sometimes use divination to communicate with ancestors. During the olden days, shamans looked at lines in animal bones or tortoise shells, to try to read the future (the same way a fortune teller might read somebody’s palm today). By consulting the underworld and reading the future, Shamans helped Chinese make important decisions about their lives. Religion formed the fundamental framework of Shang society with much emphasis on ancestor worship and credence in a pantheon of gods ruled by the supreme deity Di. Shang performed ritual ceremonies in the name of communicating with their ancestors since the prosperity of the living was contingent on the good will and support of ancestral spirits. Consultation was done to the ancestors before any major undertaking such as going to war. Their feedbacks to the living’s queries about hunting, war, or harvest were conveyed via divinations on oracle bones. Decorative cast bronze wine and food vessels similarly were used in ceremonial sacrifices and offerings. The masklike taotie motif habitually decorates the exterior of these bronzes; some scholars argue that, reinforcement of bronzes’ ritual function and connect to the world of spirit (Han, 2012). Rigorous bronze production symbolized the ruling authority as they were representative of Shang ritual rites and burial customs. As emblems of prestige and power, Shang’s bronze items were interred in the elite’s tombs; prominent people who were highly regarded in the society. The variety and amount of finely shaped ritual vessels from this retro attest to the existence of bronze production workshops and the ability of the Shang people in large scale conscription of material and human resources. The Shang bronze casting technology was different from the piece mold casting technique, which is different from the lost wax process; a technique that the Chinese were not able to master until the fifth century B.C. Though the Shang people governed most parts of central China, some contemporaneous cultures existed in some areas such as Xin’gan in southeastern province of Guanghan and Jiangxi in the western province of Sichuan. Use of bronze technology and the presence of similar decorative motifs from these cultures prove contact with the Shang, showing ancient China to have multiple cultural centers. Zhou rulers were focused to extend their territory and came up with a system of governance that saw power being hereditary to local leaders, not excluding the relatives of the trusted, royal family, subordinates members, and local chiefs who were loyal to the ruling leader. Eventually, this decentralization broke down as ambition and power grew in regional centers. At one point, the Zhou sovereign was murdered by an alliance of his enemies and vassals (Li, 2011). His son was crowned the next ruler and the main capital shifted east to Luoyang. This marked the beginning of the Eastern Zhou era, though Zhou rulers never regained their previous supremacy. Endless warfare dominated the period of Eastern Zhou. As a result many technological advances were made in connection with military affairs. By seventh century B.C., encroachments in the production of iron gave rise to stronger and new weapons as well as tools used in farming. More artistic and peaceful advances were also realized. Introduction of Bronze coinage took place and widely circulated in the rest of the empire. Inlay, Lost wax, and intricate bronze casting practices were polished, as seen on bells, mirrors, lamps, and existing metal ware in modern days. During this time, relationships between motifs and designs of various media, such as bronze and jade ze or textiles and lacquer, also make one to questions about the transmission of cultural interaction and workshop practices within and beyond borders of China. The later Zhou era is best remembered as an era of intellectual adventurism as new philosophical institutions, such as Daoism, Confucianism, and Legalism, thrived in plenty. Possibly the most famous of these institutes was founded by Confucius, whose societal apparition called for people to understand and take their position in the familial and social ladder. Confucius conveyed teachings later turned to be the crux of a political structure that accentuated the proper relationships between different members of the society. Chiefly attractive to rulers were the Confucian teachings calling for obedience and loyalty to ones family, father and ruler. This shaped a strict hierarchy of social and ritual self-control in the society (Fowler & Fowler 2008). As Confucianism spread, it turned to be the overarching code of ethic throughout East Asia, palpable even presently. Daoism was another important native school of thought, which in the Zhou tenure was an eclectic collection of popular beliefs in which human being were not considered dominating entity in the society. Instead, people were encouraged to find balance with the natural world. The Zhou dynasty figure Laozi is usually regarded as Daoism founder. Works Cited Dani, A. H. (1996). History of humanity: 2. London [u.a.: Routledge [u.a.. Hansen, V., & Curtis, K. R. (2010). Voyages in world history. Boston, MA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. Han, J. (2012). Chinese characters. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Li, S. (2011). Chinese bronze ware. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Fowler, J. D., & Fowler, M. (2008). Chinese religions: Beliefs and practices. Brighton: Sussex Academic Press. Read More