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Created with Fabric.js 1.4.5 Shang Dynasty Information The first recorded Chinese dynasty for which there is both documentary andarchaeological evidence. Musical instruments had evidentlycome down from the Xia or whatever society preceded the Shang. The Shang dynasty was the reputed successor to the quasi-legendary first, or Xia, dynasty. The dates given for the founding of the Shang dynasty vary from about 1760 to 1520 BCE, and the dates for the dynasty’s fall also vary, from 1122 to 1030 BCE. 商朝 1766 BCE - 1027 BCE The architects of the Shang period built houses of timber over rammed-earth floors, with walls of wattle and daub and roofs of thatch. Tombs weredug in clay, and their walls show traces of paintings that strongly resemble some of theornamentation and animal shapes reflected in the outstanding bronzework of the period. Jade carving became quite advanced during the Shang dynasty; ceremonial weapons of jade were made, as well as jade fittings for actual weapons. Jade figurines included both human and animal shapes, carved in the round in careful detail. Pottery objects were abundant,and Shang potters made fired-clay sectional molds for casting bronzes. They also used clay molds to imprint decorations into clay vessels—whose shapes in manycases clearly inspired designs in bronze. Some of the pottery gives evidence of possibly having been shaped on a potter’s wheel. No literature as such survives from the Shang, but quite numerous records and ceremonial inscriptions and family or clan names exist, carved into or brushed onto bone or tortoise shells. Three kinds of characters were used—pictographs, ideograms, and phonograms—and these records are the earliest of writing in China.
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