Bibliography

Shang Dynasty Food: http://www.nomorevoid.com/documents/public/Archaeology/Shang%20Dynasty%20China/food.htm
King Tang Interview: http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Tang_of_Shang_of_China
Shang Dynasty Religon: http://www.religioustolerance.org/confuciu.htm
Map of Shang Dynasty: http://www.chinahighlights.com/map/ancient-china-map/shang-dynasty-map.htm
Writing; Invention of Shang Dynasty: http://jonbyrdjonbyrd.tripod.com/shang.html
Bronze Age: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/shzh/hd_shzh.htm

Mortar

Food

The people who lived in the time of the Shang Dynasty used a Mortar to husk millet which was also referred to shu and he. Today that means two different kinds of spices. Various oracle bones also said that rice and wheat were eaten during the time of the Shang dynasty but their primary food was millet.

King Tang

Interview with King Tang

We are here today to interview the King of the Shang dynasty, King Tang.

Interviewer: Hello Mr. Tang how are you today?

King Tang: I am doing well; I actually just finished building my army. It came out enthusiastic and large.

Interviewer: Could you tell us a little about it? How you provided help to the army? And how you did you discover this new idea?

King Tang: Sure of course. We have this cart that allows the soldiers be taken to each destination. It’s called a chariot. The chariot is very useful to us and is excellent when we go out to battle. I found this idea by walking through the village. While I was walking I saw this wheel barrel with food and it made the person go faster in delivering. So I came up with the chariot idea to make my soldiers work faster.

Interviewer: That sounds interesting. Do you have any upcoming events? And how are you going to plan to do this?

King Tang: Well some of the events are not going to be available to the public but the one thing that I can revel is I am going to make the taxes smaller so resources won’t be as expensive. I plan to make them smaller by forcing my people to buy the expensive resources.

Interviewer: That sounds devious and harsh.

King Tang: Well I am lowering the taxes so I think it is fair.

Interviewer: I guess you are right. Did it feel exciting to defeating the Xia dynasty last week? And how did you do this?

King Tang: It felt like pigs flying. I had a strategy to not get caught by the king. My army works really hard and I feel like they are doing a great job fighting for me.

Interviewer: That’s all the time we have for today. Thank you for being here King Tang.

King Tang: Thank you for having me.

Bronze Artifact

Major Event

The bronze age of China began in 1700 B.C. It brought maturity to a civilization. It required men to melt copper and tin to make bronze. People also learned how to farm and produce extra food to feed the workers. This happened along the yellow river in the Shang dynasty. During the Bronze Age different ideas about the religion and the kingship came into aspect. Centuries later the Zhou dynasty replaced the Shang dynasty. The Bronze Age brought great significance to China.

Oracle Bones

 

Inventions

Writing was one of the best inventions in China. The Shang dynasty was the first group of people in China to have written records. The best place to find this writing was on the oracle bones used for prophecy. Writing is used in many different ways and languages. An example is brush painting.  Brush painting consists of either drawings or words that show landscapes or Chinese symbols. Writing also changed the way people in China could communicate. The Chinese could write to each other by letters. Writing was a great invention in the Shang dynasty.

Confucius

Religion of the Shang Dynasty

Confucianism was the major religion of the Shang dynasty. It provided the fact that Gods were very powerful. Confucianism was founded by K’ung Fu Tzu (also known as Confucius). This religion supports moral ideas and political matters. One way Confucianism changed China during the Shang dynasty was because many people during this time worshiped many gods. The main god was known as Shang Ti “the lord on high”. Shang Ti was a man of wisdom and power who soon was overthrown by emperor Chieh. The Shang dynasty also believed in Oracle bones. Oracle bones had descriptions of former ancestors- kings- that were once worshiped. From Gods to kings Confucianism had a great impact on the Shang dynasty.

Shang Dynasty

Map of Shang Dynasty

This is a map of the Shang dynasty from 1523 to 1028 B.C. The red area shows where it is located. The Shang dynasty was located to the south of China's present day capital, Beijing. The size of it was about the size of present day Arizona. The blue lines show the boundaries of other countries in China. This map proves to be very similar to many present day boundaries.

Making the Move!

The Anyang was packed up and moved once again. This nine square mile capital can’t take it anymore. It’s about to become restless. Anyang will properly become ruins the next time it will be moved. Yesterday afternoon I interviewed one of the king’s adviser about this move.“I think moving the capital takes up so much time that we could use that time to train out army for war. But whatever the king wants he gets.”

The adviser seems to have known what he was talking about. I also interviewed one of the king’s guards. He had a totally different side of this opinion.“I think my king is absolutely right with moving our capitol once again because now we have enough land to grow our crops and our enemies will not be able to find us”.

Now that  both sides of the story have been given it will be easier to decide if the king was right in moving the capital once again. Moving the capital has been very tough almost everyone pitched in. Hopefully this was a good decision.