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Economy

  • The serfs and slaves preformed all economic functions of society
  • Main income came from farming or the harvest of crops
  • Many farmers also knew how to cultivate the silkworm and weave its tread into beautiful cloth which would be used for clothing
  • Silk later became China's main export
  • The artisans formed another group of the economic structure
  • Many artisans manufactured weapons, ritual vessels, jewelry, and other items of interest

Political Structure

  • The King, or wang, had supreme power over everything else
  • He was both the political leader as well as the religious leader
  • The King along with the aristocrats and bureaucrats directed the life and work of the peasants and serfs

Social Scale

  • The King and his nobles sat at the top of the social ladder
  • Warriors were also very powerful
  • Most of peasants had very little and barely made it through the taxes that the king enforced

Religious Beliefs

  • Shang Ti - head god, rules over all other gods
  • The worship of ancestors was very important
  • Sacrifices to the gods and ancestors

Cultural Achievements

· The Shang developed a very sophisticated form of writing

· Excellent bronze workers

· Very primitive agriculture

· A written language, the art of bronze-work, two-horsed chariots, the understanding of silk

· Used a calendar

· Created the first decimal system

Geographical Boundaries

· Yellow River

Philosophical Basis

· "In the works"

Outstanding Features

· The Yellow River Valley

Success/Failure

· Failure - King killed by Zhou rebels, the civilization coundn't stand up to the Zhou rebels

Basis For Civilization

· The Yellow River Valley

· Agriculture

· Knowledge of silk

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10y ago

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