Oracle Bone: The Shang Dynasty

People believed their ancestors controlled what went on in life and could guide them on the right paths, provided they kept them happy. Therefore, many people would use oracle bones to communicate with them, divining answers to their questions and foretelling the future using cracks fire made in the bones. This belief in all-powerful ancestors was so deeply held in Chinese society that when the Zhou dynasty began, in order to cement their legitimacy as rulers and prevent any possible revolts, they claimed they had the “Mandate of Heaven” and that the Shang had lost theirs by ruling poorly. The Mandate of Heaven was, essentially, the divine right to rule, but with ancestors in place of a single deity. This was readily accepted, for the Chinese people trusted their ancestors’ decisions (considering their omnisciency) and did not wish to go against their wishes, risking the consequences of displeasing them. The Zhou knew that this aspect of Chinese culture was ingrained and therefore took advantage of the fact that their claim was virtually

| In the industry of hand crafted goods their pottery showed various types of patterns carved or painted onto them, even stones had fine pictures painted onto them. They usually wrote in a special ink, they had various forms of writing like hieroglyphics, and self-explanatory characters. They usually carved these onto animal bones or tortoise shells. Architecture was built into houses made of wood or carved out of the earth into rows. They listened to folk music and palace music. With their practice in bronze they made fine musical instruments, people engaged into music but they were divided into 3 sections; Wu, music slavery, and Gu.

The Vedic Age and the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties set the ground work for some of the prevailing spiritual principals of their societies. On the surface, these beliefs appear to be different, but a closer look may uncover some similar experiences and commonalities.

o Ancestors could intercede with Di (Shang deity), punish the kings, and provide clues about the future

How did the Qin Dynasty make an impact during it’s Reign in 221-207 B.C.and influence China till the modern day?

The Shang oracle bone inscriptions are the oldest discovered paleographic records that remain from China and have been discovered in Anyang, Henan Province, the last site of the Shang capital dating from 1200 BC until 1045 BC, the fall of the dynasty. They also have to illuminated details of everyday life of the time including highlighting various religious, political

The people who lived under the Shang Dynasty strongly believed that whenever their ancestors died, they became similar to gods, and deserved to be worshipped as if they too were gods. Each family in the Shang Dynasty would not only worship the gods, but would also worship their own ancestors. Along with ancestor worship, during the late Shang Dynasty, people in ancient China also began to use written oracle bones to try to predict the future and also to communicate with the gods.

Shang Yang came to power as a court official and within his rule, he made big political changes following certain set of strict rules and a clear political philosophy. Even though people killed him and he failed, his philosophy the Legalism was adopted and it provided a great impact to the latter generations of state rulers especially in the Qin. Shang Yang introduced major governmental and political reforms that were revolutionary for his time, and set the course for Qin to become militarily more powerful and ruthless than the other states (Qin Shihuang - Owner of The Terracotta Army. Retrieved from: http://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/china-history/qin-shi-huang.htm).

Even though the Qin dynasty was seen as barbaric and brutal, the Han did implement some of the old Qin institutions into their new government. One of these institutions were the Commanderies. These were administrative divisions of land in which a governor would be appointed by the government and run it as the government or emperor wants it to be ran. This is institution is very useful for knowing how many people you have. When war comes and you need to draft able bodied men to go fight, you will know just how many you will be able to get. Another reason would be for tax purposes. It is also very useful to regulate the trade and growing of certain crops. Even more in depth than that the government can control what the children in the commanderies are taught and what propaganda they are seeing. Qin law is another thing that the Han used from the former dynasty. One example of this practice was the fact that women could bring up cases against men even though the women did not have the same rights as men. Punishments were also

they used symbols that represented traded goods and livestock. The Sumerians used writing to keep records and to keep their stories.

The economic of throughout history have always varied during different time periods. Highly depending on different factors like land, culture and overall morality of the group in general. If the land is too dry, no crops can be made yet if the land is dangerously moist, it could just wipe everyone clean of the earth. In the early world, it was a double-edged sword. With everything being new, a lot of deaths had to occur before a steady system had to be made. The Economics that showcase the dynamics ages is The Shang, the Mayans, and the Persian empires.

Despite lasting only 15 years, the Qin Dynasty has had a huge effect influencing the oncoming dynasties of China. The leader, Qin Shi Huang, was a bold leader who built things to try to make better of China by having strict regulations that control every aspect of the populations lives. He sentenced everyone who opposed him and sent them to either death or help into building the Great Wall of China. He also improved the military to transport faster. In ways the Legalism had helped Qin keep everything under control but it came at a cost of the freedom and privacy of the

They held messages by those who carved them. Carvings were symbols that would tell stories about the carver. It could tell stories about the carvers family or the tribe the carver’s in. Often

Shang-Ti also regulated human affairs as well as ruling over the material universe. This dual function would, in the Chou dynasty, be attributed to a more abstract figure, "t'ien," or "Heaven." The Shang also believed that their ancestors dwelled in heaven after their death and continued to show an interest in their familiy and descendants. The obligations within the family included, therefore, the ancestors. Failing in one's duties to the ancestors could bring all sorts of disaster on a family. All of these divine and semi-divine figures, from Shang-Ti to a family's ancestors, were sacrificed to. However, we know little of the nature or the frequency of these sacrifices. We do know, however, that in the Chou dynasty only the king could sacrifice to Shang-Ti; it is highly likely that Shang-Ti was the "local god" of the Shang kings who was subsequently elevated in order to elevate the Shang themselves. The one disturbing fact of Shang sacrifice is that it certainly involved humans; slaves and prisoners of war were often sacrificed by the hundreds when a king died. Lesser numbers were sacrificed at the founding of a palace or temple. F. Major reasons for decline and fall: 2. Chou: dynasty (1122-221 B.C.) that ruled ancient china from almost a thousand years establishing a distinctive political and cultural characteristics which would be identified with China for the next 2,000 years. A. Reason's for Rise: B. Territorial Location & size

To begin, Egypt and China had different natural resources, so they developed different cultures and religions. For example, Egypt had access to papyrus which is a reed which can be used to produce to make paperlike things for writing. With plentiful supplies of papyrus, Egyptians were able to use hieroglyphics, which were picture symbols that represented words, and to develop a cursive symbol-form of writing. Egyptians used writing for recordkeeping, poetry, religious hymns, instruction manuals, and stories. However, in China, they had access to cattle and turtles; they used oracle bones, the shoulder bones of cattle and the bottom shells of turtles, to inscribe symbols into. In the Shang writing system, they had several hundred characters which signified a one-syllable word for an object or idea. The Chinese wrote about the king, and other parts of the Shang society. The Chinese and Egyptians developed different writing systems because Egypt had access to papyrus whereas China had supplies of animal bones. Furthermore, the Chinese also used the oracle bones for religion. Interpreters “read” the cracks in the bones which were answers given to the people from their ancestors. Then, these answers were inscribed into the oracle bones. Since the Chinese had access to these oracle bones, their religion mainly centered around divination, which is communicating with ancestors and ancient spirits. In