Fun Facts

The Shang dynasty ruled in theYellow Rivervalley in

the second millennium BC, succeeding the Xia dynasty
and followed by the Zhou dynasty.

The Shang dynasty ruled from 1766 to 1122 BC but

according to the chronology based historical records,
they ruled from 1558 to 1046 BC.

The Yellow River is the river valley of Shang civilization.

Shang civilization was known for large number of

people living in social comunities.

SHANG CIVILIZATION
By Gaurav, Archit, Pravar, Valmik
Grade 5

Location
The Shang civilization was located in the north

east of China.

The First Shang Emperor

Qin Shi Huang was the 1st emperor who had absolute power
over Shang.

The Shang dynasty was a monarchy in which Kings were

supreme lawmakers for the people. He ruled by force, and
nobody ever went against him.

When a king died in Shang dynasty, his closest relation would

take the throne.

The Yellow River

(it is the second largest Chinese river with a length of 5464 km)

The Yellow River

Each year, over 1.6 billion tons of soil aand mud

flows into the Yellow River, which causes the river

to become yellow.

Between 608 BC and 1938 AD, the Yellow

Riverflooded over 1,500 times.

It is also called the Chinas Sorrow.

The Yellow river has caused millions of deaths by

flooding thats why the civilizationswipe off.

Agriculture
The majority of people in the Shang civilization were

farmers.
Farmers grow crops of millet, wheat and Barley, not so

much of rice.
They used to bring water from the Yellow river to the crops

and plant them further south.

They used to keep sheeps, pigs and oxen with themselves.
This breeding of farm animals along with the development

of farm tools made up of stone played a very significant

role in Agriculture farming and its development.

Agriculture
(Crops grown during Shang Civilisation)

Art

Around 2000 BC people of china had learnt how to

make bronze with copper and tin from West of Asia.

Like Sumerian and Egyptian writing in modern was the

writing of those days which is based on pictures that
state ideas.

It was probably sometime during the Shang Dynasty

that nomadic Indo europeanbrought the potter's
wheel to China.

The potter's wheel let artists make pots much more

quickly, so that they became cheaper and more
widely used.

Art

(Bronze art and Pottery)

Architecture

Most people in ancient China werent rich, so they lived in

small houses which were made of mud brick, with about
only one room.

Many people lived with their house door that would face
the south, to keep away the north wind.

The first building idea for a house was that they should all
be long and low rather than tall. The roof should be kept up
with the help of columns and not walls and the roof should
seem as though they are floating.

The second focus was the symmetry, they all should look
perfectly even, and both sides should be perfectly
balanced. They used to look pretty much like huts or farm
houses of modern age.

Architecture

(shape of house, roof and the symmetry)

Defence & Weapons

The ancient Chinese river valley civilization was

engaged in military activity since the warfare.

Shang ancient civilisation are one of the worlds

oldest and largest civilizations forming around 6000
BC, with huge army of people and ammunition.

China produced massive no. of soldiers who battled

for the great rivers of China.

Their equipments were mostly made of bronze and

they were spears etc. of different kinds of sizes.

Weapons

Religion
Folkreligionduring theShang dynastywas open-

minded, meaning the people worshipped many gods.

The people of Shan dynasty also worshipped their

ancestors, the sun, moon and the rivers and the earth.
The bronze sculpture of a human head with gold leaf

was a famous bronze artwork created during

theShang Dynasty, and was associated with peoples
religious beleifs.

Clothes

According to their culture, they would wear tunics

(long t-shirts which came down to the ground for
women and to the knees for men) and wore jackets
with it or could wear pants underneath.

In early China poor people wore clothes made out of

hemp or ramie, while the rich wore ones with silk.

They would also keep their hair long as they

thought that one got their hair from their parents so
it was disrespectful to cut their hair, even of men.

Clothes

(dress shown of ladies with long hairs)

Metal

The metal Shang used was bronze and thats how

the bronze era was made.

Lu Yanguang was the first woman to appear in

Shang writings. On her list of art work were 468
works of bronze which also says that bronze was
used a lot in Shang.

Shang also developed bronze technology. They did

not make normal tools out of bronze, but used
bronze for religious items.

Bronze weapons such as spears gave the Shang an

advantage in war against their enemies.

Art & Weapons

(made of Bronze)

Government

The government of the Shang was fairly advanced.

The Government had many levels of leaders starting

with the king. Most of the high level officials were
closely related to the king who ruled land.

Warlords also owned land and owed the king and

would provide soldiers or fighters during the time of
war.

The government collected taxes from people as

today also it happens .

Writing

The Shang was the first Chinese Dynasty to invent

writing.
This ancient writing is very similar to modern

Chinese writings as Shang evolved and became

china.
Writing enabled the Shang to have a organized

society and government.

Writing

pictures

Currency and Coins

Ancient china used to use cowre shells to pay for

things that they wanted to buy.

The units name is ping. Then when the states

separated the chu made a type of coin with Shang
characters on them.

Knife shaped coins were normally used in northern

Shang and were popular there.

After the Shang dynasty it was hard to find shells in

the south so they made coins out of pottery, stone,
bone, jade and bronze.

Currency and Coins

Science (for Time)

They used gnomons, solariums or sundials. These were sun clocks

used to get the time from the suns positioning or shadow length.

The gnomon used the shadow positioning and the shadow length it
was the oldest of all astronomical instruments to measure time.

The sun clocks lost its function when it was either cloudy or raining
or even at night. It was not convenient.

Another device came out in 117 BC which was a time measuring

gadget by Su Song.

It was a mechanical device which worked with water, it was water

controlled in the shape of a sphere.

The water clock came which could keep time at morning and night.
It is called the clepsydra and in Chinese is called the Zhongu Dilou.

Science (for Time)

Dynasty
A dynasty is when a family rules the whole city or

country in a certain period of time example the

Shang dynasty and the Zhou dynasty.
The Shang Dynasty ruled much of the yellow river

but the last of the Shang was in the great city Yun.
Then afterwards the Zhous took over the Shang.

The dynasties that make

up Shang
Shang dynasty

The Shang ruled much of the yellow river but the

last of the Shang was in the great city Yun.

The Shang dynasty was the first dynasty with

written records so technically the are the first

dynasty to be known of a lot. The Shang
developed the bronze technology. Then the Zhous
took over the Shang.

Xia dynasty

Xia dynasty

Xian dynasty is known for the first ruler of the

Xian Yun the great. People think that the Xian
dynasty is just a myth.
They have not found any evidence except a scroll.

The last emperor of the Xian was king lie he was a

cruel emperor and was over threw by the Shang

dynasty.

Qin dynasty

Qin dynasty is famous for the first emperor in china. In

249 BC China was divided into 7 states and each were
fighting each state.

They called this time period the warring states. At this

time Zhengs father was the ruler of one of these
states.

When Zheng was 13 his father died and he was the

ruler of the state at 22 years.

Then he wanted to rule all the states and after he

ruled all the 7 major states Han, Zhao, Wei, Chun, Yan
and Qi and he was already ruling Qin.

Han dynasty

Han dynasty
The Han dynasty of china is one of the best

dynasties.
The Han dynasty is known as the golden age of

china. It is known for the peace of china too.

Zhou dynasty
Zhou dynasty
The longest dynasty of ancient china.

A powerful leader called Wen Wang finally Wen

Wangs son Wu Wang overthrew the Shang
dynasty and started a new dynasty called as the
Zhou dynasty.

The Zhou dynasty was taken over by the Qin

dynasty.

Reflection

This topic was pretty interesting.

We got to know so much about the Shang civilization which

made us research.

We didnt get all information which we needed online but we

covered most of the information through this ppt like the history,
agriculture, culture, Architecture etc.
We could not find how the Shang civilisation ended.
We were well organized and could communicate to each other

properly.

Acknowledgements

We thank Ms. Madhu and Ms.Flona and all the

other people who helped us.

We thank everyone for letting us use the ICT Lab.

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