Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Shang ancestors were perceived to possess divine powers ranging from trivial matters to state-related affairs, and sometimes were interpreted as a component of the Shang supreme god Di. Towards the later years of the Shang dynasty , activities of ancestral veneration became increasingly frequent compared to those of supernatural deities.
In 1046 BC, the Shang under King Di Xin collapsed, and were replaced by the Zhou dynasty following the Zhou victory in the Battle of Muye. To ensure their own legitimacy, the Zhou then co-opted many of the Shang's traditions, [301] and invoked descriptions of Shang religious practice in order to explain their downfall and justify their ...
A Shang oracle text written by the Bīn group of diviners from period I, corresponding to the reign of King Wu Ding (c. 1250 BCE) [1]The Shang dynasty of China (c. 1600 – 1046 BCE), which adhered to a polytheistic religion centered around worshipping ancestors, structured itself into key religious roles with the king acting as head.
The Shang dynasty entered into prolonged conflicts with northern frontier tribes called the Guifang. [81] [82] [83] Bronze weapons were an integral part of Shang society. Shang infantry were armed with a variety of stone and bronze weaponry, including spears, pole-axes, pole-based dagger-axes, composite bows, and bronze or leather helmets. [84 ...
Rib of a rhinoceros killed in a royal hunt, bearing an inscription including the character 商 (Shāng, fifth character from the bottom on the right) [2]. The Late Shang, also known as the Anyang period, is the earliest known literate civilization in China, spanning the reigns of the last nine kings of the Shang dynasty, beginning with Wu Ding in the second half of the 13th century BC and ...
A turtle shell used for divination during the Shang dynasty. The form of early Chinese divination was pyro-osteomancy (or pyromancy), denoting burning animal bones to seek answers to human inquiries. [124] Oracle bone divination with scapulae and turtle shells was a source of state power for the late Shang dynasty (c. 1250 – 1046 BCE).
The Chinese Bronze Age began in the Xia dynasty (c. 2070 – c. 1600 BC), and bronze ritual containers form the bulk of collections of Chinese antiquities, reaching its zenith during the Shang dynasty (c. 1600 – c. 1046 BC) and the early part of the Zhou dynasty (1045–256 BC).
Historians have come to associate the site with Yinxu, the traditional name of the Shang capital for the last twelve kings of the dynasty, starting with Pan Geng. Excavations at Anyang resumed in 1950, under the auspices of a new Institute of Archaeology, and a permanent field station was established there in 1958.