Legend of the Gods

The Shang Dynasty (about 1600 BC - about 1046 BC) was the second dynasty in Chinese history, also known as the Yin and Shang Dynasties. It was the first dynasty in China to have direct written records of the same period. The Shang Dynasty went through three major stages. The first stage is "Early Shang"; the second stage is "Early Shang"; and the third stage is "Late Shang", which is passed down to 17 generations and 31 kings, lasting more than 500 years. The ancestors of the Shang clan, the Shang clan, was a tribe that arose in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River. Legend has it that its ancestor Qi was at the same time as Yu. After Shang Tang, the monarch of Fang State and Shang State in Xia Dynasty, led Fang State to destroy Xia in the Battle of Mingtiao, he took "Shang" as his country name and established the Shang Dynasty in Bo. After that, the capital of the Shang Dynasty moved frequently. It was only after its descendant Pan Geng moved to Yin that the capital stabilized. The capital was established in Yin for 273 years. Therefore, the Shang Dynasty was also called "Yin" or "Yin Shang" by later generations. After Pan Geng's death, his younger brother Xiao Xin succeeded to the throne. After Xiao Xin's death, he passed on to his younger brother Xiao Yi. After Xiao Yi died, his son Wu Ding succeeded him. During the fifty years of Wu Ding's rule, the Shang Dynasty was at its most powerful. Emperor Xin, the last monarch of the Shang Dynasty, was defeated by King Wu of Zhou at the Battle of Muye and burned himself to death. The succession system of the throne of the Shang Dynasty was from elder brother to younger brother in the early period, and in the later period, it was a typical father-to-son succession. The Shang Dynasty was in the heyday of slavery. In the Tang Dynasty, state power had been initially established, and the social order of slavery had also been stabilized. The slave-owning aristocracy was the ruling class and formed a huge bureaucracy and military. Records in oracle bones and bronze inscriptions are the earliest systematic written symbols in China that have been discovered so far.