At the Beginning of the Chinese History

There were over thirty-eight dynasties from the Chinese History. I am going to talk about the beginning of the Chinese History. I think it was the most interesting part to discuss because it involved the development at the beginning and then grow weak at the end of the Shang dynast due to the killing of the loyal official of the emperor. It had a profoundly impact the rest of the Shang people and it's culture after Zhou took over the power from Shang. Also, there was a lot of interesting thing from their living habit such as agriculture, their routine of working and even the religion that they worshipped.

At the very beginning of the Chinese History, it started at about sixteenth century B.C from the first dynasty Xia. And it is the true and reliable history preliminarily at that time. In 1928, the scientist excavated the Bronze Age sites at An Yang, Henan Province. In 1960's and 1960's, it was found by archaeologist that there was an evolution changed of the stage from late Neolithic Age to Shang dynasty (also called the Yin dynasty).

Because of the evidence from excavated those products of a culture that left behind by the deceased. It can prove that it is believable to study and to discuss. These kinds of relics involving the bronze ware, tortoise shell, animal bone and so on. Those animals' backbone had been carved to record the historical events commanding by the Shang King who was a rebel leader to overthrow the last Xia ruler. It is just the same as the historical book nowadays. Therefore, the history of Shang dynasty is trustful indeed.

At first, all the Shang people live in Hebei Province nearby the Bohai Sea in China. And it's first ancestor of the emperor called Hau until the position changed to Shun. Shun was the ruler that said to have ruled ancient China around 2200 B.C. Meanwhile, because of Qi has the merit to help Yu to regulate the waterway, so Qi was appointed by Shun to transformed people and to teach people's human beings. Moreover, he was sent to Shang where just at the south of Hebei Province, then, the Shang's culture had been formed. Over fourteen generation, Tang again moves to Hao (the Shandong Cao Xian or the Anhui Bo county), has substituted for Xia's dominant status finally.

The modern scholar based on the ancient times literature, the Yin Dynasty ruins unearthed inscription on animal bones and tortoise shells and the other archaeological research resulting the Shang Dynasty society and the cultural general condition, describe as follows:

The economical activities: For fishing and hunting and husbandry, The Yin unearthed contain the fish, the bone, the animal bones, and has the quite large amount of the writing inscribed on oracle bones in Shang Dynasty. It is crystal clear to attain a variety of beasts type such as deer, the elk, yawn, the elephant, the tiger, the wolf, the pig, the dog, the pheasant, the ape and so on. The beasts' number have surpasses 6,000. (The Shang Dynasty hunting and fishing is not only restricted in seeking food, but also has the amusement nature, has far surpassed primitive hunting and fishing time. The animal husbandry also has the very great development, according to the inscription on animal bones and tortoise shells record; the domestic animals have the horse, the cow, the chicken, the dog, and the pig. Those domestic animals were not all made for edible, but mainly offer to sacrifice to the standard to make the sacrifice, sometimes used up to three hundred or four hundred. If not animal husbandry developed, is definitely difficult to accomplish the offer up to sacrifice.

For agricultural and the craft, all the people used the bronze ware to make the farm tools like the plow. The cultivation all used by the manpower as the inscription on animal bones and tortoise shells record crops have the millet, the millet, the wheat, the rice, the standing grain and so on. Besides, they used the bronze ware to make jade article, lacquer ware and pottery.

For the business, they were firstly buying and selling things from the means of barter trade which is the exchange of the goods only to the means of money by using the coins to trade. Form those jade articles and lacquer wares that left behind from deceased was not found in the domestic area, we all know that there was a great development of trading at that time.

For the religious belief, Shang people superstitious ghosts and gods. The King even offered sacrifices to god or ancestor and to strengthen the rule through divine almost every day. The people always use that way to request for a good fortune, for a son, for rain, and even for the elimination of diseases and illnesses.

"The last Shang ruler, a despot according to standard Chinese accounts, was overthrown by a chieftain of a frontier tribe called Zhou, which had settled in the Wei Valley in modern Shaanxi Province. The Zhou dynasty had its capital at Hao, near the city of Xi'an, or Chang'an, as it was known in its heyday in the imperial period. Sharing the language and culture of the Shang, the early Zhou rulers, through conquest and colonization, gradually sinicized, that is, extended Shang culture through much of China Proper north of the Chang Jiang (or Yangtze River)."

(Quoted from http://www.crystalinks.com/chinadynasties.html)

The last Shang's King whom was a dictatorship ruler causing the overthrown by a chieftain called Zhou. Because Zhou wanted to repay the statesman with great achievements and to surround and protect the dynasty, therefore, "feudal system" had been formed. The term "feudal" has often