Social Classes
This group of people lived life in luxury, fought in the king's armies, owned land, and hunted with the king.
Who are nobles?
Most art and weapons were made of these materials.
What is jade and bronze?
Honoring of ancestors through rituals, such as offering food to the spirits of the dead.
What is ancestor worship?
Shang kings depended on these to stay in power, defend, and expand their kingdoms.
What are strong armies?
A location where ruins were found from the Shang dynasty. China's first civilization.
What is Anyang?
This group of people made weapons used by the Shang warriors.
Who are artisans?
Jade was important to the art and culture of the Shang Dynasty. They believed the qualities of jade represented the qualities of superior people. If the jade was smooth and shiny it represented______________.
What is kindness?
Kings used this to seek advice from their ancestors on important matters such as when to hunt, where to build cities, and whether to go to war.
What are oracle bones?
These are two-wheeled carts drawn by horses that the Shang used for fighting. Three soldiers would ride in one.
What are chariots?
A strong metal alloy made from copper and tin.
What is bronze?
These people built tombs and palaces. This group included prisoners people that the Shang captured during wars.
Who are slaves?
Writing during the Shang Dynasty used ________________, characters that stand for words.
What is logographs?
The Shang Dynasty buried the kings in tombs with food and treasures. This shows that they believed in _____________.
What is life after death?
Kings took part in constant warfare to keep other _____ under control.
What are clans?
Kings often gave these to nobles as a symbol of power.
What are jade disks?
This group was in charge of providing food to the nobles and the king. They could only keep enough food to feed themselves and their families. They also raised cattle.
Who are Farmers?
Shang weapons were especially strong because skilled artisans made weapons from this material.
What is bronze?
Oracle bones were made of these.
What are turtle shells or the shoulder blades of a cow?
There have been large numbers of wild animal bones found at Shang sites. This tells us that_____________.
The Shang Kings and nobles often hunted.
This social class was the largest social class in the Shang dynasty.
Who are farmers?
These people exchanged goods and used cowrie shells as a form of money.
Who are traders?
A taotie was an animal mask, scholars say that these masks are symbols of ________________.
all of the beings of the world.
It is believed that kings inherited their power and kept their right to rule through _________ and _____.
What are family ties and military power?
Shang kings and nobles weakened their economy by doing this.
What is spending too much money to build their palaces?
The Shang used new technology to make strong helmets for battle. These were made by shaping a mixture of ____________ and ______.
What is copper and tin?