Shang nationality is a tribe with a long history who lives in the lower reaches of the Yellow River, a branch of Dongyi, and takes mysterious birds as totems. According to Records of the Historian Yin Benji, Zhu Die, the daughter of the Wa nationality, swallowed the egg of a mysterious bird and gave birth to a contract. "Poetry, Ode to Shang Dynasty and Xuanniao" says: "Xuanniao is born by fate and made by business." Consistent with the records in Historical Records. At the end of the Xia Dynasty, the influence of merchants developed from the lower reaches of the Yellow River to the middle reaches, penetrated into the ruling areas of the Xia Dynasty, established a strong tribal alliance, and began to transition to slaves.
When Qi's grandson was in power, the influence of Shang developed further, and many tribes nearby were conquered or controlled by him. About BC16th century, Shang Dynasty was established when the soup was boiled in summer. Everything is up in the air. After the establishment of Shang Dynasty, Tang learned the lessons of Xia Dynasty, implemented the policy of "leniency for the people" and paid attention to the development of agricultural production. At the same time, the Quartet conquered and extended its territory to the border areas in the west, and the rule of Shang Dynasty was gradually consolidated.
According to records, from Tang Cheng to Pan Geng, businessmen "don't often leave the city" and moved the capital five times. After Pan Geng moved to Yin, the Shang Dynasty developed in politics, economy and other aspects, especially in the fifty years of Wu Ding's rule, which was the most prosperous period of the Shang Dynasty. Wu Ding was quite famous among the kings of Shang Dynasty.
After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), Shang Tang learned a profound lesson from the demise of the Xia Dynasty, abolished the tyranny of cruelly oppressing the people, and adopted the policy of "forgiving the people and governing the business", which eased the internal contradictions of the Shang Dynasty, stabilized the political situation, and became increasingly powerful. He conquered many tribes around him and won a series of victories. Therefore, it is recorded in Mencius Teng Wengong that Tang "has eleven personalities and is invincible in the world". Yan Wu of Shang Dynasty also recorded that "there was soup, and I was a strong man, so I dared not enjoy it or come to the king", which reflected that Shang Dynasty had become a powerful country under the rule of Tang Dynasty.
After Shang Tang and Jacky, they have made great contributions in handling government affairs, stabilizing the political situation and developing production. After Zhong Zhong's death, Yi Yin played a particularly prominent role in politics and became an important assistant and elder statesman in Shang Tang's period.
After Shang Tang's death, his son Tai Ding died young, and Tai Ding's younger brother Vaike succeeded him. After the death of Waic, his younger brother Zhong Ren succeeded to the throne; After Ren Zhong's death, Tai Jia, the son of Yiting, succeeded to the throne, and Tai Jia was the eldest grandson of Shang Tang. According to "Historical Records of Yin Benji", "Emperor Tai Jia was established for three years, unknown, tyrannical, disobedient to the soup method, and chaotic, so Yi Yin was placed in the same public." Tai Jia lived in Tonggong for three years, repented and blamed himself, and Yi Yin welcomed Tai Jia back to his office. Since then, Tai Jia Xiu De obeyed the law, the vassals surrendered, and people's lives were relatively calm. This story reflects Yi Yin's unremitting efforts to implement Shang Tang's strategy of governing the country and keep the Shang Dynasty in a long-term stability. This story has a long history, so Yi Yin gained the reputation of "benevolence and righteousness".
However, the greedy nature of the ruling class determines that the struggle for power and interests within the royal family is inevitable. It is recorded in Historical Records Yin Benji; "Since middle school, disciples have abandoned it and made more contributions, which is more chaotic than IX, so the princes are not in the DPRK." From Pan Geng, it shows that during this period, the Shang royal family fought for the throne with internal strife and foreign invasion. During this period, the Shang Dynasty moved the capital several times.
According to documents, the Shang Dynasty moved its capital five times. Chronology of Bamboo Slips records that Bo moved to Xiao, He moved to Xiao, Zu Ti moved to Pi, Nan moved to Yan by Pi, and Pan Geng moved to Yan, which is called Yin. However, so far, archaeologists have only discovered four capital sites: Erlitou in Yanshi, Zhengzhou Mall, Yanshi Mall and Yinxu in Anyang. These four plots of land are all very large, all of which are more than three or four million square meters. Archaeologists have found important remains of large palaces, tombs and workshops in these four sites, such as Palace No.1 found in the middle of Erlitou site, with an area of 10000 square meters. Large-scale city walls have been discovered in Yanshi, Luoyang and Zhengzhou. A large sacrificial site was also found in the Yin Ruins in Anyang. From these findings and documents, we can know that the Shang dynasty established a relatively complete state institution, including various officials, standing armies (left, middle and right divisions), laws and regulations, criminal regulations and so on. However, there are still different views on the relationship between these capitals and the names recorded in the literature. Only Yin Ruins in Anyang is the capital of Wang Shi after Pan Geng, and their views are quite consistent.
Historians have different views on the reasons why the capital was moved many times in the history of Shang Dynasty. However, as can be seen from Shangshu Pan Geng, moving the capital is related to internal political struggle. For example, although Pan Geng claimed to "move the capital to benefit the people", he threatened those who didn't listen to his orders with "I was killed, I have no education, and I have nothing to plant in this new city" (I will kill them all and keep the evil seeds from staying in the new city), which reflected the fierce internal struggle. After Pan Geng moved to Yin, it eased the contradictions within the royal family and promoted the social and economic development. Pan Geng is known as the master of "Zhongxing", which laid the foundation for the arrival of Wu Ding's flourishing age.
Wu Ding is Xiao Yi's son, Pan Geng's younger brother and Pan Geng's nephew. When he was young, Xiao Yi invited him to live in the folk for a period of time to understand the hardships of people's lives. After he acceded to the throne, he made great efforts to govern, did not dare to abandon peace, made great efforts to govern, and determined to revitalize the great cause. Four expeditions have been made to conquer countries such as ghost face, earth face, Qiang face, human face and tiger face. The scale of the war is not small, and thousands of troops are often used. The largest one is 13000. In these battles, Zheng served many small countries, expanded his territory and captured a large number of prisoners. Wuding cultural remains are quite rich, including palaces, tombs and workshops. The bronze industry, which represented the development level of social productive forces at that time, made breakthrough progress, such as the appearance of ternary alloy of copper, lead and tin; Separation casting technology has been widely used; The output of bronzes has greatly increased, and there have also been Si Muwu Dafang Ding, and even Fang Yi, Sanlian and other heavy weapons. Wu Ding's achievements in the bronze industry marked that the bronze age in China entered a prosperous period. In addition, great achievements have been made in textiles, medicine, transportation and astronomy. The flourishing age initiated by Wu Ding laid a good foundation for the development of social production in the late Shang Dynasty and even the prosperity of Western Zhou civilization. Sacrificing to heaven and ancestors has a long history in China, and such remains are frequently found in prehistoric archaeology. With the emergence of agriculture, people worship heaven to pray for a good year with good weather. This is a kind of nature worship. Ancestor worship is also called soul worship. From the memory of ancestors, dreams are understood as the souls of ancestors. People offer sacrifices to their ancestors in order to seek their blessings. The situation of "being at home in the world" since the Xia Dynasty has greatly changed the content of primitive religion. Because the emperor is the highest ruler in the world, in order to maintain his rule, he combined ancestor worship with nature worship and created supreme gods such as heaven or god. It can be known from the literature that there was a "heaven" god in Shang Dynasty. Oracle bone inscriptions in Shang Dynasty were discovered by chance in 1899, presenting ancient Chinese characters buried for more than 3,000 years to the world for people to understand. The discovery of Oracle Bone Inscriptions made the existence of Shang Dynasty indisputable and the history of Shang Dynasty a history of trust. 150,000 pieces of Oracle bones unearthed from Yin Ruins in Anyang recorded many things that happened in Shang society. After several generations of collation and research, it reveals its rich contents and opens up an important way for studying the history of Shang Dynasty. Oracle Bone Inscriptions has "Emperor" or "God". Therefore, when Shang Tang attacked, he said, "There are many crimes in Xia, which are determined by destiny", "Xia is guilty, and the son is afraid of God's will and dares not be unjust", and played the banner of "God's will" to encourage the sergeant and allied forces to carry out God's will and fight bravely. But the God in the sky and the Emperor (Shang King) on the earth are opposites. In order to carry out God's will, Xia Di communicated with God through witches. When worshipping ancestors, the Shang king used five kinds of sacrifices to the ancestors after the good ones. Thousands of sacrificial pits were found in the sacrificial site of Yin Ruins in Anyang, and Wuding sacrificed hundreds of people at one time. This situation reflects the importance attached by Shang kings to ancestor worship, because God is both the supreme god and the ancestor god.