The Shang dynasty
The first Chinese dynasty confirmed by its own written records.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 554 years
- Known to
- ± 50 years
- Era
- Bronze Age, Holocene
The Shang rule the Yellow River plain from around 1600 BCE from a series of capitals, the last at Anyang. Their society is stratified, chariot-using, and organised around a king who is the sole intermediary with the royal ancestors and the high god Di. Human sacrifice is practised on a substantial scale, with hundreds of victims in some royal tombs. The dynasty was regarded as legendary until the oracle bones were identified in 1899.