East region

• Worship of "Shang di" by the Shang dynasty


  • Ruling over earth, heavens, moon, sun, wind, and natural forces
  • Emperors and kings offering sacrifices and practicing ancestor worship
• Yangshao tradition


  • Painted pottery
  • Animal domestication
  • Silk products
  • People lived in dug-pit or semisubterranean houses to maintain temperature
• Shang dynasty


  • Considered China's first dynasty during the bronze age
  • Had 29 to 30 kings from the same clan for 600 years
  • Used oracle bones for predictions and decision-making
• Dynastic rule starting with the Xia ruler

  1. Xia ruler established as the first dynasty in China

  2. Dynasty defined as rulers from the same family or clan
• Oracle bones


  • Shoulder bones of water buffalo or cattle
  • Turtle shells with inscriptions carved on them
• Shang kings hiring professionals to predict the future

  Using oracle bones
• Zhou dynasty taking over from Shang dynasty


  After the last Shang king, Di Xin, committed suicide
• Chinese way of writing starting with oracle bones


  Characters signifying things, ideas, or sounds written in a vertical order
• Lungshan tradition


  • Sophisticated and polished black pottery
  • People lived in walled settlements and large towns
  • Knowledge of making bronze tools, weapons, and ornaments
• King Yu of Xia


  • Taught early Chinese flood control techniques
  • Initiated clan control
  • Provided a benevolent civilian government and a harsh legal system
• Neolithic China traditions

  • Yangshao
  • Lungshan
• Shang dynasty economy

  • Engaged in agriculture and domestication of animals
  • Raised pigs, chickens, and water buffaloes
  • Silk making and bronze-casting technology as sources of livelihood
• Tomb excavations mean that in the tombs of kings and emperors, they would place the bones of those who worked for them because they believe thay they should continue serving them until the end.
• They also practiced ancestor worship for they believed in the afterlife.
• The kings were at the top while officials of various ranks assisted them, they were all really powerful.