Essay On Xia Dynasty

Violence raged during the twilight of the Xia dynasty. Clans fought one another for territory and slaves, and the tyrannical and decadent last Xia king, Jie, no longer commanded the power to prevent this fighting. Warfare had traditionally been an activity reserved for the nobility, but Cheng Tang, tribal chieftain of the Tzu clan from the Shandong Peninsula, armed the peasants. After many years of fighting, his forces finally defeated the Xia king in central China. Subsequently, peasant rebellions would become a common feature of dynastic overthrows in China into the 20th century.
Around 1766 b.c. Cheng Tang was awarded the imperial seals and Emperor Yu 's nine bronze tripods (dings), the symbols of Xia rule. Cheng Tang founded the Shang dynasty--considered …show more content…
The Tzu were able to maintain a monopoly on bronze making because they were the only ones wealthy and powerful enough to muster the enormous resources that the process required: huge amounts of metal ore, wood fuel, and human labor. And bronze, in turn, gave the Shang rulers a decisive military advantage, as wood and stone weapons are no match for metal ones. Riding into battle in fearsome bronze-wheeled chariots, and armed with bronze weapons such as battle-axes and spears, Shang warriors easily conquered the less technologically developed tribes. Within the Shang realm, the nobility 's monopoly on bronze weapons was a powerful deterrent to …show more content…
Most of the writing is found on oracle bones and bronze ritual vessels. Large rocks were sometimes inscribed with details about important state events. Early Chinese historians noted that the Shang also wrote on strips of bamboo. Whereas in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, the first writing was used for commercial records (grain measures and taxes), the writing found at Shang sites consists of religious divinations--questions for the ancestor gods, and the gods ' answers. The following are some of the oracle bone inscriptions found in Lady Hao 's