¶ … power of China from the Shang Dynasty to the Western Han. There are eight references used for this paper.
China has seen a number of changes in terms of history and power over the years. It is interesting to examine the changing nature of the association as well as explore the relationship between history and political authority from the Shang Dynasty to the Western Han.
Political Power
China's history has been documented in a number of ancient writings.
Centuries of migration, amalgamation, and development brought about a distinctive system of writing, philosophy, art, and political organization that came to be recognized as Chinese civilization (Shinn, 1991)."
The fact that this civilization has continued over 4,000 years provides it with a unique position in world history.
Until the twentieth century, members of the ruling scholar-official class were responsible for documenting the history of China, which was "meant to provide the ruler with precedents to guide or justify his policies. These accounts focused on dynastic politics and colorful court histories and included developments among the commoners only as backdrops (Shinn, 1991)." The Chinese political pattern of dynasties was a cycle of "ascent, achievement, decay, and rebirth under a new family (Shinn, 1991)."
Until the nineteenth century, the people enjoyed an undisturbed view of the world that was China-centered. However, "superior Western weaponry and technology and imminent territorial dismemberment, forced China to reassess its position with respect to Western civilization (Shinn, 1991)." The 2,000-year-old dynastic system of imperial government fell in 1911 when China was unable to adjust to the changes effectively.
The Shang Dynasty
The Shang dynasty was founded when the last Xia ruler was overthrown by a rebel leader and was based on agriculture, hunting and animal husbandry.
During this period, two major events occurred, "the development of a writing system and the use of bronze metallurgy. Ceremonial bronze vessels with inscriptions attested to the workmanship and high level of civilization (Shinn, 1991)."
The Xia cast bronze tripods with images of animals on them "so that living people would realize which animals were helping people to cross from earth to heaven and which animals were unhelpful and even harmful (home.attbi.com/~piannone/o-s/ch-innerhist.html). These images were not shamanistic in commonly understood terms, nor associated with daoist knowledge of spirit life and movement. Nine administrative districts each presented their best commodities to Great Yu as a show of gratitude for taming the floods of their lands. Great Yu created nine tripods out of the bronze he received, each carved with rare and precious animals, which became a symbol of rule over the nine districts. Later during this dynasty the tripods were decreed to "be handed down as national treasures from generation to generation and became a symbol of state and power (www.chinatown-online.com/cultureeye/highlights/bronze.htm).
The capitals were the center of court life where highly developed rituals were performed to appease spirits and to honor revered ancestors. The king held a high secular position and was the "head of the ancestor- and spirit-worship cult (Shinn, 1991)."
The ancient capital city of the Shang Dynasty was located in Henan Province, central China, near the Yin Ruins. Anyang City, which existed over 3,300 years ago, was the "largest of the Shang Dynasty (16-11 century BC), covering more than four million square meters (unknown, ruins)." The last capital city of the Shang dynasty was Yin Xu Ruins, however the larger city provided greater insight into the history and culture of ancient China.
The ancient city contained "tombs, houses, wells, pottery and bronze ware. Some inscriptions on bones and tortoise shells, China's earliest written characters, were discovered in the city (unknown, 2000)."
These bones known as Oracle bones, "were used for divination by kings of the Shang Dynasty. Oracle bone inscriptions were like the cuneiform writing of the ancient Near East and hieroglyphic writing of ancient Egypt. (unknown, 2002)." Some of the inscriptions also carried vermilion, which is a "bright red mercuric sulfide used as a pigment (http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entries/56/v0065600.html)."
Forms of the early inscriptions continue to be used by one fourth of the world's population today.
Daoism, or the study of nature's patterns, has been in existence since the earliest Chinese eras.
Historians and scholars dispute the concept that "these ideas did not evolve with time like human beings are supposed to have, but that they sprung, full-formed, in a culture that long preceded the historical land of 'China,' even the early China that scratched their versions of these earlier ideas into the famous 'oracle bones' (home.attbi.com/~piannone/o-s/ch-innerhist.html)."
Feudal governments in North China, which existed during the era of the oracle bones, were different from the original...
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