Chapter VIII Overview of the Shang Dynasty

readx;? The Majiayao culture and the Qijia culture are concentrated in some valleys suitable for agricultural development in the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 From the unearthed production tools and the remnants of people's lives at that time, they are all relatively primitive agricultural culture, and at the same time, animal husbandry and fishing and hunting economy also account for a large proportion, and class differentiation has emerged.

Following the development of the Qijia culture, there is a bronze culture in the upper reaches of the Yellow River, and there is a Siwa culture in the valley from Longshan to Gannan Taohe River basin, which is still dominated by agriculture. The Cayo culture in the upper reaches of the Yellow River and the Huangshui basin has developed into a predominantly nomadic culture.

"Shuowen" said: "Qiang, Xirong shepherds also." "Customs and Customs" also says: "Qiang, Ben Xirong is also a lowly person, the Lord shepherds sheep." Therefore, 'Qiang' comes from sheep and people, because it is the number. This interpretation made by Xu Shen and Ying Shao refers to the Qiang people in western China since the Xia and Shang periods, and if we say that the origin era of the Qiang is mainly primitive agriculture, and various tribes and ethnic groups engaged in fishing and hunting.

As the environment became worse and worse, the agricultural output became less and less, and grazing became the main source of living food, about the Xia and Shang periods, Xirong gradually developed into a large nomadic group, and gradually absorbed the exile power of China in the middle, forming a civilization group with the Qiang (including Di and Qiang) people (originally surnamed Jiang, descendants of Emperor Yan, defeated by the Yellow Emperor, and retreated to the West after the Battle of Chiyou).

In 1629, after the Xirong Kunlun branch (matrilineal clan, queen, the prototype of the Queen Mother of the West) came to pay tribute, Taiwu sent Wang Mengbei to Xikunlun to ask for the elixir of life, but he never returned.

Legend: Taiwu sent Wang Meng to the Queen Mother of the West to seek the elixir of immortality, and later Wang Meng was stranded in the middle of the road due to lack of food, and could only eat the fruits of the trees, wear the bark, and live in the barren mountains. Wang Meng was single all his life, and the Emperor of Heaven took pity on him for having no offspring, and jumped out of his two sons in his sleep. After the birth of his son, Wang Meng died. Wang Meng's son also used this method to give birth to the next generation. And the offspring were all men, and gradually there were more and more men in this place, so it was called the country of husbands.

In the sixty-first year of Taiwu (BC1594), the Jiuyi tribe (nine powerful tribes in the east) came to pay tribute, indicating that after years of development, the national strength of the Shang Dynasty became stronger and stronger.

The fundamental feature of the political system of the Shang Dynasty was the division between internal and external services.

Neifu is the Wangji region directly ruled by the Shang king Liao Xin, and the corresponding officials are called Neifu officials.

There were fifty or sixty kinds of internal service officials in the Shang Dynasty as seen in Bu Ci and Jin Wen, which can be roughly divided into four categories.

The first is "Hundred Wings and Ministers". Including high-status former ministers, old ministers, and close servants of the Shang king. The highest administrative officer is the "Xiang" who assists the Shang King in decision-making, also known as "A, Bao, and Yin". The high-ranking officials of the dynasty were collectively referred to as the secretaries. The three princes are a kind of honorable title set up by people, and they are not permanent. In addition, there are: palm divination, sacrifices, recorded "history",

The second is "only subdued". Mainly military officials who had close ties with the Shang king.

The commander of the division of the commander of the military attaché, the chariot of the king, the service of the king of Shang (also known as the servant, the emperor), the guard military attache Ya, the guard Ya brigade,

The third is "zonggong". Refers to officials in charge of royal rituals and certain specific matters.

The ruler of the ruler and the retainers of his cronies. The ministers manage the specific affairs of the royal family, including divination, praying to ghosts and gods, recording and keeping the books of classics (also known as the history of guarding Tibet, internal history), the chief of the hundred workers, the Si of the grain collection, the animal husbandry of animal husbandry, the beast of hunting, the wine of wine, the elder of the country who educates the children of the nobility, and the master and young master of the music work.

The fourth is "the king of the people". Refers to the officials who administer the local tribes and ordinary people.

In charge of the field of foreign origin of the "畋 (pronounced 'field' / dian) old".

The waifu is the area under the jurisdiction of Bomber, and the corresponding officials are the waifu officers. These foreign service officials include the marquis and uncle of the head of the Fang State, the dian (tian) officials who manage the fields, the male officials who serve the dynasty, called "Ren" in the divination, and the famous ones are Erren, Ge Ren, Mingren, Lu Ren, etc., and there are guard officials who guard the border, as a kind of military position, in the divination they are mostly called "Duo Shooting Guard", "Duo Ma Wei", "Duo Dog Guard", etc., and there are also those who are simply called "Wei". Many of these foreign officials were most likely tribal leaders of the Fang Kingdom and belonged to merchants.

The oracle bone inscription indicates that there are large squares of ripe fields in the fields of Quang Binh that are neatly and regularly organized. The word "Xinjiang" in the oracle bone inscription "Jiangli" symbolizes the field that measures and demarcates the boundary, and the word "domain" in "Tian Chou" is like a field ploughing back and forth according to rows of ridges, and such a field will certainly not be cultivated very extensively. These square fields, which were well cultivated and had irrigation ditches after being regulated by the territory, were later well fields.

These fields were mainly distributed in the vicinity of the capital, and were directly occupied by the Shang kings and princes, but also distributed to close relatives and nobles. Other nobles also managed such fields in the fiefdoms, albeit on a smaller scale. Outside the national capital, Shang kings often sent their subjects to more remote places to cultivate land.

The agricultural tools used in the Shang Dynasty are generally believed to be mainly made of stone, bone and mussel shovels, axes, sickles, knives, etc., and occasionally some bronze tools such as copper shovels and copper shovels are also found, but they are not necessarily used for agricultural production.

The Shang Dynasty's economy was more developed than that of the Xia Dynasty: the scale of agricultural production was quite large, animal husbandry was developed, six animals were raised, there were elephant training (there were elephants in the north at that time), and the castration technique of pigs was mastered, and freshwater fish were raised artificially. Sacrifice with hundreds, if not thousands, of domestic animals.

The development of handicraft production in the Shang Dynasty was more prominent than agriculture. The handicraft industry is all managed by the government, the division of labor is fine, the scale is huge, the output is large, the variety is many, the level of craftsmanship is high, there are generations of craftsmen who are engaged in production and are good at specialized skills, and the scale of production and the high level of skills are rare in the world at that time. Handicrafts such as bronze smelting and casting, jade making, and sake brewing were well developed.

Among them, especially the high development of bronze smelting technology and bronze manufacturing technology, it has become a symbol of Shang Dynasty civilization. In the ruins of Yinxu and Zhengzhou Mall, bronze casting workshops dedicated to the royal family were found.

The Shang Dynasty had already invented primitive porcelain, which was the first time porcelain appeared in the world. The white and delicate white pottery is quite horizontal, and the shape is realistic.

The finely carved jade tools show the superb skills of the jade craftsmen of the Shang Dynasty. Silk fabrics have plain weave silk, hank weave leno, thousand-grain crepe yarn, and have mastered jacquard technology.

On the basis of the development of agricultural and handicraft production, and the increasingly consolidated and complex division of labor within various production sectors, commerce in the Shang Dynasty also developed to a certain extent, and many merchants engaged in long-distance trafficking with oxen carts and boats. In the late Shang Dynasty, there were traders specializing in various trades in the capital, and Lü Shang used to slaughter cattle in Chaoge and sell rice in Mengjin. Transactions are made with seashells, bone shells, jade shells and copper shells.