The Shang Dynasty And The Bronze Age Of China

The Shang and Zhou Dynasties were considered two of the greatest time periods in all of China. This was the period in time were China started to become a more civilized and technologically advanced culture and people as a whole. This period in Chinese history came to be known as the Bronze Age of China due to the archaeological find that the people of the Shang and Zhou Dynasty began to learn how to work bronze and create art and fashion tools and other useful items from it such as weapons and tea kettles or sculptures. The Shang Dynasty is considered to be the time when China and it’s civilization first started to take full shape of its society and people as a civilized country and government. The Shang dynasty occurred during an estimated …show more content…
In 1027 B.C., the Zhou people conquered the Shang people and they ruled up until the very end of 256 B.C. The Zhou came into their land from the western half of China. In order to make their attack seem less harsh than perceived; they tried to convince the Shang that everything they did was according to a mandate of heaven. The mandate of heaven was a rule stating that the Zhou were here to liberate the land from the Shang rule on account of divine and holy providence. They proposed that the reason they are taking their land from them was because they have angered the gods and as a form od punishment, the Zhou were messengers of the gods to take from them their land and home as a consequence to the angering of ways of the gods claiming that the Zhou treated multitudes of people well and it could be inferred or referenced that this mandate of heaven was a form of karmic response system for the governments of the early Chinese cultures during that time period. It was stated that as long as the dynasty provided a good government for its people, then the mandate was pleased and would not intervene in their affairs but if the rulers were to ever become evil or the government were to ever become a corrupt system, then the mandate would become angered and the mandate would then have to withdraw its support from that country or government of people. Withdrawal of support from the …show more content…
The women were allowed to do and accomplish what they pleased much as the men cold. The only difference between the two being that they could only have these opportunities if their husbands allowed it or if they were widows, meaning married women whom husbands have died. Conceiving children was still the main purpose of marriage then as was a common belief in the social order of many early civilizations and like so many, boys were still