SHANG  DYNASTY 1523-1027 BC

At about the time Abraham was building the principles of Judaism and the Stonehenge was rising, a great Bronze Age Culture was emerging in China. This great Bronze Age Culture was called the Shang Dynasty and until a great archeological discovery in 1899 it was a legendary mythological kingdom.

1899 the Yuan River northeast of Anyang in the Henan province, had an enormous flood. This led to the discovery of large amounts of tortoise shells and bones beneath the stratums of earth near the Yuan river. For years that followed the Chinese Herbal medicine men promoted ground up powdered “scales of Dragons” as a remedy for the most serious ill. One day a young doctor who was an amateur archeologist had seen one of the “scales of the Dragon” at an herbalist shop and noticed ancient Chinese writing inscribed upon its surface. Buying a “Dragon Scale” from herbalist he eagerly took it to a scholar to have the writing deciphered this event led to the discovery and uncovering of Yin, the last capital of Shang-dynasty near Anyang. Over the course of many years  (1927-1937) more than one hundred thousand tortoise shells and bone-fragments, containing 3500 different characters, were unearthed and archived. Approximately one thousand of these ancient records had been successfully interpreted and many historic facts were revealed. Of special interest- it was a common practice by the royal courts of the Shang Kings to seek the advice of the Oracle through the mystic ritual of writing on tortoises shells and then burning them for a “reading”. Important questions could then be answered by the mystical wisdom of the unseen, all knowing Oracle that was interpreted by a court Shaman (fortune teller). The term Oracle bones were given to these Tortoise shells because of this ancient Shang Shamanistic ritual.

What has been deciphered from the Oracle bones is that The Yang-shao and Liangzhu cultures laid the foundations for the first true Chinese civilization, the Xia (Hsiu) Dynasty the predecessor of the Shang Dynasty. The Xia Dynasty is still shrouded in mystery and further discoveries wait to uncover the glorious past of this long lost fist Dynasty. What we do know from the Oracle bones is that the defeat of the last king of Xia-dynasty in circa 1600 B.C. by Tang (from the royal house) brought into power the kingdom of Shang. The Shang controlled a loose confederation of settlement groups in the Honan region of   North China from the 16th century BC to c.1027 BC. The Shang civilization was characterized by an advanced system of writing, a sophisticated bronze metallurgy, fine Jade craftsmanship, the first Chinese calendar, and cities. Aided by a priestly class, the Shang kings prayed to  their God "Shang Ti." This god ruled as a supreme god over lesser gods, the sun, the moon, the rain, the wind, and other natural forces. Sacrifice to the gods and the ancestors (ancestor worship) were also a major part of the Shang religion.  Different kinds of sacrifice were carried through; one of them (liao) was to burn the victims, another kind (chen) was to drown them. When a king died, hundreds of prisoners, slaves, horses and  even concubines were sacrificed and buried with him. Important social and religious events called for Human sacrifices and often their sacrificed bodies were incorporated into the walls or the foundations of a building.

According to oracle bones the royal members of Shang were descendants of a mysterious Serpent god. During the Shang reign, Kings had supernatural powers and the ability to transcend the material world into the spirit world. The Kings were endowed with heavenly forces and served as the link between the Gods and humanity. This godly power gave the Shang Kings a tremendous authority and control through dictatorial rule of both the political and religious aspects of the Shang civilization. We see very close similarities to the ancient Aztec Kings of Mesoamerica. The King’s palace was at the center of the Shang capital. Surrounding the central palace were houses of bronze and jade artisans. These houses were rectangular, using a post and beam construction and were built on stamped earth platforms. The Shang people had bronze weapons, bronze fittings for chariots and harnesses, bronze vessels connected with worship and ornate nephrite Jade for both life and burial ritual. The pottery of the Shang was unglazed porcelain quality earthenware rather than bronze wares that were strictly ceremonial. They grew grains such as millet and some wheat, which were harvested with sickles but there is no evidence of rice agriculture.

The Oracle Bones records 36 kings during a period of 17 generations. The kingdom of Shang extended from the eastern Shaanxi in the west to the central Shandong in the east, and from the southern Hebei in the north to the northern Hubei and Anhui in the south. According to these ancient written records the kings and capitals often moved  from one place to another. Shino Archeologists believe that it was a method to exchanged and share power amongst the royal families. The Shang state moved its capital five times. The earliest capital seems to have been Erlitou where the introduction of sophisticated bronze castings and foundries made a sudden surprising appearance. One last known and famous capital was during the reign of King Pangeng, the seventeenth king of the Shang. He reestablished the capital at Yin, in the neighborhood of present Xiaotuncun, in Anyang City of Henan Province. This new capital contributed to a strong centralized stable government. Between 1400 B.C. and 1350 B.C. the Shang-capital was moved to Anyang, in the northern part of Henan. This period was later known as the golden age of The Shang Dynasty. Archeological have been surprised to find no city wall surrounding Anyang, which may reflect strong centralized political and military power.

The Shang were masters of the crafts with great skills of carving fine jade wares, stone wares and ivory wares brilliantly decorated. Textile workers invented simple jacquard loom, which could produce high-quality silk fabric with hidden pattern. The Shang people demonstrated talents in medicine, transportation and astronomy. There are schools of Sino Archeological thought that believe that the Shang colonized the Northwestern United States as the art of the Northwest Indians is strikingly Shang. Now after all these thousands of years the history of these great people and the story of their lives are told to us by their artifacts. These great people who believed in the magic of life are the ancestral grandparents of the Chinese people.

Authentic Chinese Shang Dynasty  Jade artifacts are indeed rare due to popularity, mystical attributes and  scarcity. I have studied and specialized in Shang Jade artifact for over 30-years and find that each jade artifact made by the hands of the Shang are masterpieces that the western world has seldom seen. I occasional offer Shang  Jade specimens from my 30-year collection so please check my Ebay auctions while I have these ancient treasures still available.                              -Ian (Fung Gen Qua)