Chinese History Yangshao and Longshan

Chinese History

Yangshao and Longshan cultures and the Shang dynasty each represent successive stages of social and technological development in China. The Yangshao and Longshan cultures were both stone age societies and their major accomplishments centered on the widespread development of increasingly sophisticated agricultural techniques as well as the development of new forms of pottery. However, the Longshan culture and its technologies proved far more sophisticated than its Yangshao predecessors. Cities emerged, silk production began, and burial methods became increasingly complex. The Shang dynasty represented one of the first breaks from neolithic stone age society in China. Bronze tools were first developed in China during the Shang dynasty. Also, the Shang dynasty represented the first recorded use of Chinese characters. The respective accomplishments of the Yangshao, Longshan, and Shang people illustrate how, when and where Chinese society evolved.

The Yangshao culture flourished between 5000 and 3000 BCE primarily in the mountainous regions of northern and western China and in the valleys strewn along the Yellow River. Two of the most significant accomplishments of the Yangshao culture included agriculture and pottery. In particular, the Yangshao people cultivated grains extensively and mainly millet. Primitive silkworm cultivation paved the way for later developments in silk production. Moreover, animal husbandry emerged during the Yangshao period as the neolithic culture lived in more stable, sedentary, organized societies. Yangshao pottery also represented a major technological step for early Chinese people. The Yangshao pottery was painted with geometric designs mainly in black and pottery became one of the key ways archaeologists could distinguish between Yangshao and Longshan culture.

Like Yangshao society, Longshan culture was neolithic and most tools were crafted out of stone. From about 3000 to 2000 BCE, Longshan culture evolved along the Yellow River like the Yangshao but farther east and in different geographic terrains than their predecessors. The most important accomplishments of the Yangshao include silk production, the erection of walled cities, and unpainted pottery made on wheels. Unlike Yangshao pottery, Longshan creations were simple polished black but because of the use of the wheel their design and durability represent technological progress in neolithic China. The erection of packed earth city walls with moats surrounding some of them shows that Longshan society became more urban in character and in need of protection against nearby villages. Cities also suggest social hierarchies, role distinction and possibly income disparity. One of the hallmarks of Yangshao culture was the organized, systematic cultivation of silkworms for the production of one of the products that would soon characterize Chinese culture and economy.

The Shang represent one of the first known Chinese dynasties, and therefore demonstrate the step-by-step development of ancient Chinese society from more simple to more complex social, political, and economic structures. Also located along the Eastern part of the Yellow River, the Shang dynasty period signals the first development of the Chinese written language. Pictographic characters were etched mainly into turtle shell and animal bones. Bronze was developed during the Shang dynasty period: between 1600 and 1100 BCE. During the Shang dynasty methods of divination using animal bones and religious cosmologies also emerged, representing key developments and accomplishments in Chinese society.