The Shang were ruled by kings and began to hold the kings
responsible for the welfare of the people and the fertility of the
crops. Rituals and proper sacrifi ces had to be made to ensure the
future crop, so the kings took on a religious function. The Shang
grew millets, wheat, and some rice.
The Shang ruled with a series of loyal vassals, a kind of feudal
system to govern the outlying regions. The Shang also had some
kind of slavery, but there’s a lot of disagreement over it. They also
practiced sacrifi ce, including of humans.
Another set of invaders, the Chou, arrived from the West around
1000 B.C., perhaps of Turkic origin. The Chou took over all
of the former kingdom and extended it and strengthened the
system of vassalage. The feudal aristocracy had virtual control
in their own region and just owed allegiance, taxes, and men for
building projects or for war to the king. Increasingly, the Chou
centralized their kingdom, claiming that the king was a kind of
semidivine being.
The Chou also apparently introduced the domesticated soybean to
China—or at least popularized it. More importantly, they introduced
cast iron, which can be made into very strong farm tools, weapons,
and cooking vessels.
The most important thing about this dynasty is the earliest
development of a professional bureaucracy of scholars running
this increasingly centralized government. After about 700 B.C.,
these shi became the crucial transmitters of culture from the top
down. They kept records, issued proclamations, and served as
advisors. They organized huge irrigation projects and extended rice
cultivation, and the population grew tremendously.
From about 500 B.C., Chinese civilization really blossomed under
the Chou, and this is regarded as the classical age of ancient Chinese
culture. Poetry and scholarship fl ourished, in addition to science,
technology, and a detailed understanding of the stars.