Shang Bronze Age

The economy of ancient China was based on agriculture. China was made up of farming villages along its rivers. Manufacturing and trade were carried out by merchants and artisans in walled towns.

Each consisted of two sections—an elevated citadel, or fortress, and a lower residential area.The Shang may simply be one of several early Chinese civilizations. But it is China’s first historical state. That is, the Shang were the first to record their dynasty’s history using a formal writing

The economic basis for Han China and Rome was primarily agriculture. The large-scale use of small farms in both empires fostered a solid economic foundation. This led to an extensive use of agriculture. Much of the wealth of the government was derived from their annual harvest. Roman landowners used tenant farmers to care for their crops while they were at the city. The wealth from these rural laborers was funneled to the central government, making the city to become the center of wealth. In

During the Zhou dynasty, Chinas economic and social standpoints began to take place. They continued with the farming and agricultural path, trade, and manufacturing ways. Merchants and artisans lived in small towns, owned by the landlord, leaving many to work in groups. There were groups of slaves, most likely prisoners of war, that worked alongside merchnats and traders. Even though there were slaves, scholars do not believe that that slavery was profoundly important during this era due to it not obtaining a large group of the population. The citizens of the Zhou age were able to construct extensive water restriction projects to monitor the flow of water into the fields. They were soon able to create a system of canals and spillways that helped

The Tang and Song dynasties have been regarded as the “golden age” of arts and literature, setting the bar high for poetry, landscape painting, and ceramics. When international merchants brought their poetry, the Chinese invention of paper and block printing made poetry widely available in the Tang dynasty. They also invented new styles of ceramics and metalwork, influenced by

The earliest printing in China was the block printing method in the first Century B.C., where the individual sheets of paper were pressed against wooden blocks that had text and illustrations carved into them. This process could print hundreds and even thousands of copies, this technology played a significant role in promoting the spread of culture. A block carver named Bi Sheng made movable types with clay during the period from1004 to 1048. This method each type was carved with one character and the types could be set independently according to contents of different articles. After printing, the movable types could be reused and this improved technology is called movable-type printing. (LAN, 2008)

Both the Huang He and Yangtze rivers contributed to the success of ancient Chinese civilization. These rivers provided the Chinese with fertile soil ("Huang He"). The Huang He River was given the nickname Yellow River because of the loess sediments that the river contains ("Huang He"). As a result, a majority of the population settled along the Huang He and Yangtze river valleys (Starr). This was very vital to the Chinese culture and reflected in their social classes (Perkins 4). The second class was made up of farmers (Perkins 4). “The Chinese have always felt that the owning of land for agriculture is the basis of wealth and social prestige” (Perkins 4). The rivers also provided transportation navigable by ships (Starr 21). The Chinese used boats for travel and transportation of goods up and down the rivers (Blunden

The Oracle Bone, which is usually inscription on bones or tortoise shells of the Shang Dynasty or Yin Dynasty (Turchin, Adams, and Hall). This had been used until the early period of Zhou Dynasty which was right after Shang Dynasty. It is the representative of one of the earliest Chinse characters. This item was very often used by the royal family of Shang Dynasty to predict whether there would be good or bad fortune coming up in the future. Also, the inscriptions on bones or tortoise shells were usually shown as the result of divination.

The Chinese civilization endured success and turmoil throughout their different dynasties. They were intelligent and were continually progressing to make their society better, or at least attempting to do so. The Shang tribe was very powerful and took over the Chinese empire. They brought law and order to two of the three rivers that China based itself off of. They were most notorious for building walls around their city to keep them safe from any foreign attacks and using bronze for weapons or cultural pieces of art.

The Shang Dynasty was the second dynasty of China, which was founded by Cheng Tang. It succeeded the Xia Dynasty. It’s the first period of Ancient China that it’s existence has been proved by archaeology, such as oracle bones which is the oldest documentation of writing. They produced the calendar and were the first to invent writing.

Other important cultural advancements include China’s ability to make silk and paper. That was very important to China’s cultural advancements. They made massive palaces, beautiful temples and Buddhist monasteries. Some of the art China made include calligraphy, ivory or jade carvings along with ceramic

The Shang family arose from the Wei River Valley and conquered most of the North China Plain by around 1500 BCE. They built their empire by using their highly sophisticated military to take over a settlement and making a local king manage city affairs, such as collecting tax for the emperor. Through this, they built an impressive realm with cities that had canals and efficient drainage systems. They had a trading system that had a form of money and the most advanced bronze casting system at the time. They even had a rudimentary writing system used for

This includes the three perfections calligraphy, poetry, and painting. Calligraphy is fancy writing. They traded and voyaged paintings, poems and calligraphy fonts. They also had block printing and porcelain. Block Printing is when a worker would use a piece of wood and start to carve out Chinese pictures, and text.

During the Iron Age between 590-529 B.C.E., the Assyrian Empire was taking its final footsteps, and breaking down into smaller regional powers, the Egyptians, the Medes, the Lydians, and the New Babylonians (Making Europe 51). Along with these new regional powers, was the kingdom of Persia, which was established around 700 B.C.E., and for the first 150 years of the Persian Kingdom, the Persian Kings were vassals of the Medes (Making Europe 53). In 553 B.C.E., the Persians began to revolt against the Medes and finally defeated them in 550 B.C.E., which marked the beginning of the Persian Empire. In 547 B.C.E. looking to expand commercial activity, the Persians attacked and defeated the kingdom of Lydia, which also gave the Persians control

Design and fabrication technique were closely related in Shang and Zhou bronze vessels because decorative designs and inscriptions were first carved on the molds, with which casting molds were made (Bagley,