Yellow River Bronze Age

Sarah Berry

Shang

3900-3046 BP (1900-1046 BC)

Follows the Yellow River Late Neolithic Tradition (Longshan) and precedes the Zhou Dynasty.

The Yellow River Bronze Age Tradition is located in the Yellow River and central Yangzi River valleys of China.

Large urban centers; increased numbers of bronze ritual objects and weapons; mold-cast bronzes; proto-porcelain; oracle bones; writing; numeration (on oracle bones and ritual bronzes); gray, coarse-textured ware (Erlitou subtradition); cord-marked ceramic vessels.

Qijia (4300-3500 BP), upper Yellow River; Erlitou (3900-3500 BP), often equated with the Xia dynasty (ca. 4070-3600 BP) in Henan and Shanxi; Xiaqiyuan (ca. 3800–3500 BP), northern Henan and southern Hebei; Yueshi (3800-3400 BP), Shandong, eastern Henan and northern Jiangsu; Erligang (3600-3400 BP); Shang (3600-3046 BP); Yinxu or late Shang (3250-3050 BP).

Dahezhuang (Yongijing, Gansu); Daxinzhuang (Daxinzhuangcun, Licheng district, Jinan, Shandong); Dongxiafeng (Xia county, Yuncheng, Shanxi), Erligang (Erligang district, Zhengzhou, Henan); Erlitou (Erlitoucun, Yanshi, Luoyang, Henan); Gaohong, (Gaohongcun, Liulin, Shanxi); Huanbei (Yindu district, Anyang, Henan); Mogou cemetery (Lingtan county, Gansu); Panlongcheng (Huangpi district, Wuhan, Hubei), Taixi (Taixicun, Gaocheng district, Shijiazhuang, Hebei); Xiaoshuangqiao (Shifo Town, Zhongyuan district, Zhengzhou City, Henan); Yanshi Shang City (Yanshi, Luoyang, Henan); Yinxu (Anyang, Henan); Zhengzhou (Ancient Shang Dynasty City Ruins, Guancheng Hui district, Zhengzhou, Henan)

The climate was similar to today’s, with much of the precipitation occurring during the summer East Asian Monsoon. The Upper Yellow River area of Gansu (the area occupied by the Qijia subtradition) has a low level of rainfall, making it relatively arid. The Loess Plateau is arid to semi-arid. The Central Plain (southern Hebei, Henan, western Shandong, and southern Shanxi) is in the northern temperate zone, with a warm, humid climate and distinct seasonality. The Yangzi River area of Hubei has a humid subtropical climate, also with distinct seasons.

The large region encompasses a wide variety of topographic features. In the west is the Loess Plateau, located in the Ordos Loop of the Yellow River. The Taihang Mountains are along the eastern edge of the Loess Plateau. Continuing east, there are the North China Plain and the Shandong Peninsula with mountains at its center. The Yellow River flows through the North China Plain carrying and depositing fertile loess soil from the Loess Plateau. The Qinling or Qin mountains are at the southern edge of the North China Plain, forming a watershed boundary between the Yellow River Basin to the north and the Yangzi River Basin to the south. The Yellow and Yangzi rivers have many tributaries, and there are other smaller but important river systems in each region, as well as several freshwater lakes in Jiangsu and the central Yangzi River Valley. The Yellow River was and is particularly prone to flooding and changing its course. Traditional history states that Yu Gong created flood control and became the founding emperor of the Xia dynasty. The present coastline north and south of the Shandong Peninsula extends ten to twenty miles farther out to sea than it did during the tradition.

The geology of this broad region is highly varied. Sources for lithic artifacts are mostly unknown. Rock outcrops are common in highland areas. Common rock types are metamorphic, coal-bearing, carbonates, clastic, and igneous (especially in mountainous areas). Minerals important during the tradition include salt, copper, lead and tin, many of which are found outside the Erlitou, Erligang, and Shang core areas, helping to drive territorial expansion.

Corresponding to a variety of climate regimes, flora are equally diverse. In the west (Gansu and the western Loess Plateau), one finds Temperate Steppe with plants from the Poaceae and Asteraceae families, and riparian plants along tributaries of the Upper Yellow River. The North China Plain has Temperate Deciduous Forest; in Shandong there is also salt-tolerant vegetation along its northern coast, where salt was manufactured. The middle Yangzi area contains Subtropical Broadleaved Evergreen and Deciduous Forest. Regions where the most paleobotanical studies have been carried out show an increase in weed species from the previous tradition into this one, indicating more anthropogenic landscapes, with increased reliance on agriculture and livestock. Some of the wild animals and plants listed in excavation reports are: deer, birds, fish, amaranth, goosefoot, purslane, wild grape, smartweed, spurges, wild soybean, lotus root, water caltrop, and foxnut (Euryale ferox).

Most areas have a four-tiered settlement hierarchy, consisting of: a large, planned urban center, usually a regional capital; smaller administrative centers or military towns; towns; and small agricultural villages. Cities, especially those in the North China Plain, could be quite large; Zhengzhou was more than 1300 hectares with an estimated population between 78,000-130,000. Smaller settlements are found in other subtraditions; Qijia and Xiaqiyuan settlements were mostly under 10 ha, while Panlongcheng, a stronghold near copper mines along the Yangzi River, was up to 100 ha. When a few large urban centers of similar size existed, it is likely that they were competing capitals. Traditional texts state the Shang capital moved several times, with the last one at Yinxu. Some settlements were situated to control trade routes or mineral resources such as salt or copper, and even the sources of stone for making such utilitarian tools as spades and axes. Most were built near rivers to facilitate transportation for communication and/or trade. Defensive walls around cities and town also could have served as protection from flooding.

Large cities had a central, walled core that housed a palace and a religious area for sacrifices. These inner walls would have had the dual purpose of protecting the palace and its inhabitants and separating them from people of lower rank. An additional outer wall usually surrounded and protected all or most of the rest of the settlement. Both sets of walls were made of rammed earth. Drainage systems have been found in some inner cities. Beginning during the Erlitou period, urban road networks developed, especially within and extending out from primary centers. Settlements contained neighborhoods, sometimes of migrants from various areas of North China as indicated by the styles of pottery vessels. Neighborhoods probably were segregated by lineage and by rank; royal neighborhoods and non-royal ones have been found. Neighborhoods contained habitation areas, public buildings, small cemeteries, craft production areas and, at Yinxu, a larger courtyard type of compound that could be used as a lineage temple. In the longer-lived cities, habitation areas could become cemeteries and then return to habitation. Also found in settlements are pottery kilns, wells, waste pits and granaries, and workshops for bronze, pottery, stone tools, bone, turquoise, or jade.

Housing varies across subtraditions and according to social status. In the Qijia subtradition, square or rectangular houses are small (under ten square meters), are usually constructed at ground level, and have plaster floors, a hearth in the center, one to two rooms, and a south-facing door to let in light and warmth. In the North China Plain, square or rectangular houses can be subterranean to semi-subterranean, at ground level, or built on rammed earth platforms, and have one or more rooms. They can be standalone or be one of several in a house compound (a compound consists of buildings, a courtyard and, typically, a wall to separate it from the rest of the community). The higher ranks have houses on platforms made of rammed earth (the higher the platform, the higher the rank), with two or more rooms totaling ten to one-hundred square meters in area. Palaces are found in the largest cities. By the latter half of the tradition the typical Shang house is rectangular, built on a rammed or pounded earth foundation, with walls of pounded earth and roofs of poles covered with rush matting and mud plaster. These types of houses also appear in areas under Shang influence but outside the Central Plain (the western portion of the North China Plain).

At its peak, Erlitou likely had a population of between 18,000 and 30,000 people. The Early Shang capital of Zhenzhou may have been inhabited by between 78,000 and 130,000 people. Several cities saw dramatic declines or rises in population, probably due to migrations between them, such as one proposed from Erlitou to Zhengzhou. Migration is indicated by rapid population growth and decline at various cities, especially when the decline is followed by the growth of a nearby city. Clusters of different cultural traits within cities, such as pottery or house styles, and the frequent alteration in the use of areas between mortuary and habitational are further evidence for population movements. Rapid territorial expansion by the Erlitou and Erligang states was accomplished by moving whole groups of people, ranging from craftsmen to nobles, to the frontiers, as evidenced by the spread of cultural traits. Little data are available on health and disease, but there are numerous instances of death due to warfare and human sacrifice.

Floral and faunal remains have not been systematically collected at most sites, so knowledge of the full breadth of the diet and the relative importance of particular foods is provisional. The people of the Yellow River Early Bronze Age were intensive agriculturalists, growing millet, wheat, and rice as staples, and often multicropping, which would have required manuring. The major cereal crop grown depended on the region; in general, millet was grown in the north, wheat in the west, and rice in the south. Wheat, not native to East Asia, was a significant crop by the Erligang period. Legumes, especially soybeans, were another major crop. There is evidence for fruit trees and vegetables. Important domesticated animals were pigs, cattle, sheep or goats, dogs, and chickens. Pastoralism was more common in the Qijia subtradition, probably because its locale was drier. Weedy species increase during the Erlitou period, indicating agricultural intensification; however, many could have been used as fodder. Fishing was common. Hunting was an important activity for the nobility. Broomcorn millet and rice could both be brewed into fermented beverages, important in burial rituals.

Much of the bronze work during the first half of the tradition occurred near the inner walled areas of urban centers, indicating that workshops were supported and supervised by the highest social ranks. Distribution of bronzes was also under state control. Ritual bronzes were made using alloys of tin, although other alloys were available. Gold and silver were used for ornaments and decoration, but bronze was the preferred metal for ritual items. By the middle of the tradition bronze production was a prescriptive industry, meaning it was organized in a series of supervised steps, with the bronze cast in molds as separate pieces that were later combined. Inscriptions of family emblems or names is common on ritual bronzes. Bronze also was used to make standardized ritual vessels, and both ritual and utilitarian weapons. It was not used to make common tools such as farming implements. During Late Shang, polities outside Shang territorial control began to make their own bronze vessels and tools.

Craft specialists made many goods, both utilitarian and luxury. Craft workshops are found throughout cities. The production of ritual and luxury goods for the nobility took place in government-run workshops that were mainly located within or near the inner city, where the palace also would have been located, facilitating supervision; the state would also have controlled consumption of such products. Evidence from Zhengzhou shows a functional division of labor between different workshops to promote efficiency in production. Craftsmen producing more utilitarian objects were sent to help settle new territories, as evidenced by the appearance of new pottery assemblages made with local clay. A wide range of utilitarian and status objects are found in the Yellow River Bronze Age Tradition: woven textiles (e.g. flax); chipped and ground stone tools for farming; bone and shell tools; ceramics (including proto-porcelain early in the tradition); weapons and ritual items of copper and bronze; ritual objects of jade; and a variety of high-status items using lacquerware, turquoise, elephant ivory, and gold leaf. An early iron battle-axe was found at the Erligang subtradition site of Taixi in Gaocheng, Hebei.

Utilitarian tools were made of clay, stone, bone, and shell, many by skilled craftspeople. Probably common, few tools made of wood have survived. Large numbers of bronze vessels were produced, including a variety of tripods and beakers; many would have been used to prepare and consume fermented beverages required in rituals. During the Erlitou subtradition a delicate white pottery was used for drinking vessels; the typical pottery was a grey coarse ware, some with cord-marked decoration. Vessel shapes included cooking pots in jar or tripod forms, and serving vessels, including flat-bottomed basins, stemmed dishes, pitchers, cups and beakers. Vessel forms, especially those of ceramic vessels, became more standardized and less diverse throughout the tradition.

Most ornaments have been found in high-status graves. These include items such as: rings, earrings, bracelets, pendants and hairpins; ceremonial items made of shell, turtle shell, jade, turquoise, and lacquer; and items with gold leaf or of gold and/or silver. Turquoise workshops are found as early as the Erlitou subtradition. Many ritual items had intricate designs carved in them, including ceremonial weapons made from jade or bronze.

The desire for raw materials from throughout present-day China may have driven much of the territorial expansion seen during the tradition. Materials sought include: salt from Hedong Salt Lake in Yuncheng, Shanxi and from the salt marshes in Shandong; other marine products from the east such as seashells; proto-porcelain from the Yangzi River valley; and, from multiple regions, metal, grain, livestock for food or sacrifices, and humans for sacrifices. Ground stone tools were traded early in the tradition, as seen from the site of Huizui in Yanshi, Henan. The number of agricultural tools found in cities decreased over time in comparison to craft goods (especially specialized craft items), indicating cities increasingly relied on trade or tribute for foodstuffs. By the middle of the tradition, four known trade routes linked regional centers and small fortified sites, to bring resources to principal cities like Zhengzhou and deliver luxury goods to peripheral regions. The volume of trade in specialized craft goods may have been facilitated by a currency based on cowry shells.

It is assumed there was a division of labor by gender, with men in administrative roles, women in the domestic sphere, and both sexes in farming and perhaps also in government-run construction projects like building city walls. There were women of high rank who had positions of power as diviners and even warriors, such as Fu (Lady) Hao, a wife or consort of King Wu Ding who appears to have been a high priestess and military general as evidenced by oracle bones and weapons in her tomb.

The highest ranks controlled the production and use of bronze ritual items for ancestor worship by elites. During the Erlitou subtradition such items occur only in burials at the principal site of Erlitou. Early Shang bronzes include weapons for warfare. Bronze was not used for agricultural tools. The manufacture and distribution of ritual bronzes was controlled by the ruling elite at the major political centers, a pattern that only changed in the Late Shang period when bronze trade items from the Northern Zone appear and peripheral areas begin to make their own vessels.

Judging from architecture and burials, there was wide gap in status between commoners and elites, especially at the level of the princely and kingly lineages. Royalty resided in the inner, walled part of cities, in residences built atop of raised, rammed earth platforms. Rammed earth requires a large amount of labor, and many of such structures would not have been of direct benefit to the people building them. Royal tombs were large, some monumental in size, and contained numerous goods and sacrifices, including human adults and children—the most potent sign of the class divide. This was a patriarchal society composed of lineages with the males in positions of government. People likely lived in neighborhoods comprised of people from their own lineage. Rank extended to patrilineages; for instance, kingly lineages had separate cemeteries from those for princely lineages. Men probably held a higher status than women, as the larger graves more frequently contain males as the primary occupant. There are, however, tombs with high ranking females, like the Late Shang tomb of Fu Hao, a wife or consort of King Wu Ding, who was also diviner and a general; writings from the Zhou period name other female generals.

The Shang leader was already a hereditary king during the Xia period (4070-3600 BP) prior to the start of the Yellow River Bronze Age. Kings were theocratic rulers whose power came from communicating with the gods, especially the high god Di, through sacrifice and divination. Kingly responsibilities included leading military expeditions, performing divinations with oracle bones, and offering sacrifices to the royal ancestors to ask for blessings and dispel curses. Kings could have multiple wives. They engaged in activities that were pleasurable as well as political, such as hunting and royal visits that reinforced territorial claims. Late Bronze Age leaders gained some control over distant areas through export of ritual bronze vessels required for ancestor worship (although usually not the complete set that would be found in the capital), jade objects, fine ceramics, and bronze weapons in exchange for raw materials such as copper, tin, jade, salt and agricultural goods, as well as finished products such as proto-porcelain, horses and chariots, and humans and animals for sacrifices. Also important to foreign relations were marriages between royalty, military conquests, and colonization. Territories held by Shang rulers most likely were not contiguous, instead forming a mosaic or patchwork of regions potentially interrupted by the scattered territories of other polities. According to his study of oracle bone inscriptions, David Keightley (1983) described the Shang state as “gruyere, filled with non-Shang holes.” Also powerful were the leaders of military units, a warrior class that formed patrilineal descent groups.

The sites of Erlitou and Erligang were imperial capitals with palaces, temples, and royal cemeteries at their centers that served as the administrative, economic, and religious centers of government. Smaller, walled cities surrounding these capitals were the equivalents of provincial and county capitals, likely ruled by heads of princely lineages. Some of the more distant territories may have been colonies. All would have been important, supplying goods to the larger cities through trade, tribute, and/or force. Shang rulers, however, did not like to occupy foreign lands. From the Erlitou period on, the Yellow River Bronze Age tradition consisted of various territorial states—single rulers with the ability to use force controlled large territories through a hierarchy of leaders and administrative centers.

An early Chinese text, perhaps written between the eighth and fifth centuries BCE, observes, “The great affairs of a state are sacrifice and war.” Queries on oracle bones include ones about the outcomes of military campaigns. Most cities had perimeter walls, in addition to the ones around an interior palace precinct. Burials provide additional evidence of violence, e.g. two individuals from an Erlitou frontier site who had been scalped. Early in the tradition, the polities of the Central Plain were frequently at war with one another, with evident parity until the site of Erlitou came to dominate. War was a way to gain territory and access to key resources such as salt, and metals to make bronze. At the site of Erlitou, production of arrowheads increased over time. By Late Shang war chariots appear, and horse remains reappear, last present during the Late Neolithic. Specialized bronze weapons are found, some highly decorated, including ones made primarily for ritual purposes and/or as status symbols.

The state, mostly through the person of the king, participated in ancestor worship and the worship of heaven or the gods, creating areas within cities for large public buildings and places for sacrifice. The state also controlled the production and distribution of ceremonial objects needed for these rituals, including sets of bronze vessels (some used for fermented beverages), ceremonial bronze weapons, and jade items. Worship required offerings and sacrifices, most commonly of sheep and cattle. Sacrifices also took place in royal cemeteries and during four different stages in the construction of ancestor temples. Oracle bone inscriptions record the sacrifice of over 10,000 people during the Late Shang. The king was responsible for performing divinations to determine the will of the gods and what sacrifices they demanded. The practice of divination was widespread; for the Shang dynasty there are more than 120 named diviners known. Oracle bones—of turtle shells, and the scapulae of cattle sheep, deer, etc.—had glyphs written on them indicating the “charge” the diviner wanted to ask the gods or ancestors (called a “charge” because the inscriptions were not necessarily in the form of a question). Topics included predictions of weather and agricultural harvests, the likelihood of military success, and the affairs of the royal family. Once the charge was written the bone would be burned and the resulting cracks would be interpreted. Evidence of ancestor worship and belief in the afterlife is found in city neighborhoods that have a cemetery with an associated compound that could be used as a lineage temple where people could make offerings. During the tradition, ancestor worship become less personal, going from the worship of a specific lineage ancestor to the veneration of a high-ranking ancestor to the use of generic names for the temples of royal ancestors. Divination also became less personal, with charges limited to the accomplishment of ancestor cult offerings, the ten-day week forecast, and the royal hunt.

The king was the most important religious practitioner, expected to communicate with the gods through divination using oracle bones and the proper sacrifices to royal ancestors. Additionally, there were male and female diviners, or oracle bone priests and priestesses.

Funerals were important rituals, and neighborhoods contained temples where ancestors could be worshiped. Sacrifices were the most important element of most rituals; how they were to be performed was discussed in oracle bone inscriptions. During most of the tradition, topics for divination included: blessings from the gods, weather, harvests, sacrifices, warfare, the meaning of royal dreams, child-bearing, hunting, foreign relations, the arrival of tribute, and settlement construction. Toward the end of the tradition, divination and ritual sacrifices became stylized and prescribed, with less leeway for individual tastes, and ancestral sacrifices followed a set schedule and cycle. During the Qijia subtradition, which so far appears to lack temples, there nevertheless are areas set aside near cemeteries for sacrificial offerings. Heated fermented beverages, especially for funerary rites, were important in ceremonies, and music was probably also part of many.

Musical instruments include bells. There was a variety of visual arts: masks; ornaments; figurines of ivory, clay, jade, or bronze; stylized bronze and clay vessels, some decorated; and ceremonial weapons of bronze or jade. Such items have mostly come from burials.

Most graves contain a single interred individual, except for the Qijia subtradition in which multiple burials were common, usually a male and one or two females, probably wives. The majority of graves contain no grave goods or only a small amount of pottery that, toward the end of the tradition, was mass produced for the purpose. In cities with a long period of occupation, cemeteries (except for royal cemeteries) might be located in a previous habitational zone, and might once again become inhabited. In the Erlitou subtradition, the absence of common cemeteries used for long periods suggests a transient population of diverse origins. By the Shang period the living were expected to care for their ancestors with offerings and ritual prayers, necessitating that the dead be buried nearby. Offerings to the dead were made at the time of burial and at later intervals. Such lineage cemeteries have been found at Yinxu, the Late Shang capital. The highest-ranking people were buried in large, above-ground tombs, sometimes with ramps and ercengtai—earthen ledges that held and displayed burial goods, especially containers for offerings, including alcoholic beverages. The deceased were placed inside one or two coffins. Such high-status tombs have associated sacrificial pits used for ancestor cult ritual offerings. Increasingly toward the end of the tradition, elites often were buried with human and animal sacrifices, bronze tools and weapons, jade objects, proto-porcelains, cinnabar on the floor and, only for those of the highest rank, bronze ritual vessels; by the end of the tradition there might even be horses, and chariots or parts of chariots.

The tradition summary was written Sarah Berry in January, 2021. We thank Peter N. Peregrine for bibliographic suggestions.

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