Cultural Life in the Shang Dynasty

The Shang rulers shifted the main city to Yin (current Anyang of Henan Province) in late Shang dynasty (1600 B.C.-1046 B.C.), and the real history and cultural life of the Shang dynasty were recognized to people generally through the national relics unearthed from Yin Ruins, including identities on the oracle bones, bronze wares, potteries, bone wares and stone wares. What attracted the historians most were the inscriptions on the oracle bones (over 100,000 parts), which were used by the ancient imperial soothsayers for divining the future of a person or a country.The imperial soothsayers dug a small opening on one side of a (not penetrating) and toasted it near the burning fireplace, and they divined the future of a man, a country and the market when the other side of the bone cracked. Eventually, the oracle inscriptions were carved by them on the turtle shells or animal bones. What was interesting, the oracle inscriptions were mainly concerned to the ancestral worshipping rites and the number of animals used in a sacrificial rite in the Shang dynasty, and some were related to atmospheric circumstances (such as water, wind and snow), some were related with the harvest of agriculture, some were with respect to war, and some were in respect to the dreams and diseases of humans, that we will understand much details about the Shang dynasty.The Shang people heavily depended on agriculture sector and fed on wheat, grain, glutinous millets and soybeans, and the farming work was primarily done by manpower and the ploughs were used as the major farming tools. Fishing and hunting also were utilized as a by the Shang people, whose preys ranged from wild boars, deer, foxes, rabbits to pheasants. What was more, the wild animals were tamed by the Shang people into livestock as well, including elephants, lamb, hens, dogs, pigs and cattle, sheep, birds, cows, pigs and elephants, and it was recorded that the elephants were sent by the old Shang people to battle. The Shang people were great at creating bronze wares, which was shown by a number of swords, spearheads, armors, blades, arrows and axes well-preserved in Yin (Anyang) Ruins, and most bronze wares for the imperial and noble people were decorated with florid designs.Besides various bronze wares, a series of dog patterns and mathematical drawings were decorated on the potteries as well, which were fairly difficult but vivid. The Shang individuals were also expert at bone carvings, enamel carvings, jade carvings and rock carvings, which were in the types of individual numbers, tigers, rabbits, fishes, birds, dragons, turtles, elephants and phoenixes.