6 China in World History
the twentieth century, Lady Hao’s tomb, though smaller than many,
was discovered completely intact in 1976, yielding 3 ivory carvings,
468 bronzes (weighing about 3,500 pounds and requiring 11 tons of
ore to produce), 500 bone hairpins, 590 jade objects (from sources
far beyond Shang control), and nearly 7,000 cowry shells (from the
sea coast), which were used as money. From oracle bone and bronze
inscriptions, we know that Lady Hao was King Wu Ding’s favorite
consort and that she led Shang troops into battle and performed ora-
cle bone divinations herself.
Shang bronzes and oracle bones reveal the Shang as a very hierar-
chical society in which some were slaves and servants at the bottom,
many were illiterate farmers, menial laborers and craftsmen, and a few
were privileged aristocrats who lived and died amid great wealth and
splendor. The elite in this society paid careful attention to the care of
dead ancestors, on the assumption that kings who were powerful in
life were even more powerful in death. Thus, survivors fi lled the gravesThis Shang oracle bone inscription explains that the diviner asked if Lady Hao’s
childbearing would be good if it came on a certain day. The result, also recorded
on the bone, was that her childbearing, in the end, “was not good,” as she gave
birth to a girl. From the collections of the Institute of History and Philology at the
Academia Sinica, Republic of China