﻿FAR 
  EASTERN 
  CIVILIZATIONS 
  — 
  BISHOP 
  477 
  

  

  identifiable 
  archeological 
  remains, 
  and 
  some 
  have 
  even 
  doubted 
  its 
  

   existence. 
  In 
  later 
  (but 
  still 
  fairly 
  early) 
  times, 
  however, 
  the 
  Hsias 
  

   seem 
  to 
  have 
  been 
  regarded 
  as 
  in 
  some 
  sort 
  the 
  forebears 
  of 
  the 
  ruling 
  

   class 
  during 
  the 
  Chinese 
  Bronze 
  Age 
  ; 
  and 
  it 
  seems 
  most 
  probable 
  that 
  

   they 
  were 
  an 
  actual 
  group, 
  perhaps 
  a 
  local 
  one 
  (Creel, 
  1937, 
  pp. 
  

   97-131). 
  

  

  THE 
  SHANG 
  DYNASTY 
  

  

  The 
  second 
  dynasty 
  claimed 
  by 
  the 
  Chinese 
  was 
  the 
  Shang. 
  Here 
  

   we 
  are 
  on 
  much 
  firmer 
  ground, 
  for 
  of 
  this 
  we 
  have 
  both 
  actual 
  remains 
  

   and 
  contemporary 
  written 
  records. 
  The 
  Shangs 
  seem 
  in 
  the 
  beginning 
  

   to 
  have 
  been 
  merely 
  one 
  of 
  several 
  bronze-using 
  groups 
  in 
  northwestern 
  

   China, 
  located 
  in 
  southwestern 
  Shansi 
  if 
  we 
  may 
  believe 
  an 
  early 
  

   legend. 
  Our 
  oldest 
  accounts 
  — 
  reduced 
  to 
  their 
  present 
  form 
  centuries 
  

   after 
  the 
  close 
  of 
  their 
  period 
  — 
  declare 
  that 
  they 
  shifted 
  their 
  capital 
  

   several 
  times. 
  

  

  Eventually 
  however, 
  perhaps 
  about 
  the 
  sixteenth 
  or 
  fifteenth 
  cen- 
  

   tury 
  B. 
  C, 
  we 
  find 
  them 
  seated 
  in 
  the 
  great 
  North 
  China 
  plain, 
  near 
  

   the 
  Yellow 
  River. 
  Here 
  they 
  established 
  themselves, 
  thenceforth 
  to 
  

   be 
  for 
  several 
  hundred 
  years 
  the 
  dominant 
  group 
  in 
  that 
  region. 
  

   Either 
  then 
  or 
  perhaps 
  earlier 
  the 
  Shangs 
  seem 
  to 
  have 
  adopted 
  

   numerous 
  cultural 
  features 
  from 
  the 
  aborigines, 
  descendants 
  of 
  the 
  

   old 
  Neolithic 
  peoples; 
  but 
  essentially 
  the 
  Shangs 
  themselves 
  were 
  a 
  

   Bronze 
  Age 
  group, 
  of 
  rather 
  primitive 
  type. 
  

  

  In 
  later 
  times 
  the 
  Shangs 
  were 
  sometimes 
  called 
  the 
  Yins 
  ; 
  but 
  there 
  

   is 
  no 
  contemporaneous 
  evidence 
  that 
  they 
  ever 
  applied 
  that 
  name 
  to 
  

   themselves. 
  

  

  With 
  the 
  Shangs, 
  then, 
  authentic 
  Chinese 
  history 
  may 
  be 
  said 
  to 
  

   have 
  begun 
  6 
  (Creel, 
  1937, 
  chap. 
  3 
  ; 
  Latourette, 
  1934, 
  vol. 
  1, 
  pp. 
  40-46). 
  

  

  Nature 
  of 
  the 
  Shang 
  "empire." 
  — 
  The 
  Shang 
  "empire" 
  meant 
  simply 
  

   the 
  area, 
  mainly 
  in 
  the 
  middle 
  and 
  lower 
  Yellow 
  River 
  basin, 
  in 
  which 
  

   they 
  exercised 
  a 
  precarious 
  supremacy 
  over 
  as 
  many 
  other 
  groups 
  

   (most 
  of 
  them 
  probably 
  with 
  a 
  similar 
  type 
  of 
  culture) 
  as 
  they 
  could 
  

   hold 
  in 
  subjection. 
  Thus 
  it 
  was 
  a 
  mere 
  tribute-collecting 
  machine 
  of 
  

   the 
  same 
  kind 
  as 
  the 
  earlier 
  "empires" 
  of 
  the 
  Near 
  East. 
  No 
  evidence 
  

   exists 
  of 
  any 
  effort 
  on 
  the 
  part 
  of 
  the 
  Shangs 
  to 
  set 
  up 
  a 
  feudal, 
  much 
  

   less 
  a 
  bureaucratic, 
  system 
  of 
  government 
  — 
  forms 
  which 
  seem 
  indeed 
  

   to 
  have 
  been 
  quite 
  beyond 
  their 
  political 
  concepts. 
  

  

  The 
  Shang 
  rulers 
  were 
  not 
  emperors 
  but 
  kings, 
  of 
  a 
  primitive 
  priestly 
  

   type, 
  though 
  some 
  of 
  them 
  seem 
  to 
  have 
  been 
  great 
  war 
  leaders 
  as 
  well. 
  

   They 
  were 
  regarded 
  by 
  their 
  subjects 
  as 
  intermediaries 
  between 
  man- 
  

   kind 
  and 
  the 
  Unseen 
  Powers 
  and 
  as 
  responsible 
  for 
  the 
  maintenance 
  of 
  

   the 
  due 
  course 
  of 
  Nature 
  through 
  their 
  observance 
  of 
  the 
  proper 
  rituals 
  

  

  a 
  Both 
  Chinese 
  and 
  Occidental 
  scholars 
  agree 
  that 
  China's 
  authentic 
  and 
  continuous 
  

   history 
  does 
  not 
  begin 
  until 
  the 
  ninth 
  century 
  B. 
  C, 
  long 
  after 
  the 
  Shang 
  Dynasty 
  had 
  come 
  

   to 
  an 
  end. 
  

  

  