Shang Contributions to Chinese Civilization. The Shang made many contributions to Chinese civilization, but four in particular define the dynasty: the invention of writing; the development of a stratified government; the advancement of bronze technology; and the use of the chariot and bronze weapons in warfare.

The era of the Shang and the Zhou dynasties is generally known as the Bronze Age of China, because bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, used to fashion weapons, parts of chariots, and ritual vessels, played an important role in the material culture of the time.

bronzes

Ritual bronze vessels were more than just elegant objects of status, but symbols of power, commanding respect. They were cast using ceramic piece molds, built around a clay model. The shapes of the bronzes appear to have developed from ceramic prototypes, and experimentation with hammered shapes and different forms.

Sumerians

The Shang people used oracle bones to communicate with ancestors and deities, who were believed to have the power to bestow fortune, disasters and guidance on the living world. At the royal court, the oracle bones divination was carried out by trusted ‘diviners’ or by the king and other members of the royal family.

A fortune-teller would carve (later, paint) symbols on the bones of the ox or the turtle shell, apply a hot poker or fire until the bone or shell cracked, and then interpret the direction of the crack through their drawing to predict the future.

The oracle bones are important because they bear the earliest form of ancient Chinese writing and contain historically important information. From oracle bones scholars have learned the complete royal genealogy of the Shang dynasty.

Why have scholars studied oracle bones? The bones provided information about the Shang rulers and dynasty.

Oracle bones provide us with one of the earliest examples of writing in Ancient China. They also have given historians useful information about the Shang dynasty. Oracle bones were usually made from the shoulder blades of oxen, or sometimes the shell of a tortoise was used. They were used to divine the future.

Li Ji

Chinese characters, also called Hanzi (simplified Chinese: 汉字; traditional Chinese: 漢字; pinyin: Hànzì; lit. ‘Han characters’), are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese.

Simplified and traditional Chinese In the 20th century, written Chinese diverged into two canonical forms, simplified Chinese and traditional Chinese. Simplified Chinese was developed in Mainland China in order to reduce the number of characters and the average stroke count per character.

three-stroke marks found on pottery pieces from the late neolithic period, as early as 4800 B.C., are the earliest traces of Chinese writing and prove that writing was invented in China earlier than anywhere else in the world by a margin of more than a thousand years.

Cangjie

It is estimated that the Romans were the first to really bring calligraphy to the masses – you only have to take a look at many of the statues throughout Italy or Roman remains in the UK to see the strikingly beautiful lettering that they painstakingly carved. They did also write in this style!

In China, from a very early period, calligraphy was considered not just a form of decorative art; rather, it was viewed as the supreme visual art form, was more valued than painting and sculpture, and ranked alongside poetry as a means of self-expression and cultivation.

Calligraphy established itself as the most important ancient Chinese art form alongside painting, first coming to the fore during the Han dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE).

Basically, there are five major styles in Chinese calligraphy – Zuan, Li, Tsao, Hsin, and Kai. Each style has gone through changes and evolutions throughout Chinese history in terms of their character form and artistic styles and structures.

In its distinctive Chinese form, calligraphy offers an important channel for the appreciation of traditional culture and for arts education. It is also a source of pride and pleasure for the Chinese people and embodies important aspects of the country’s intellectual and artistic heritage.

Chinese calligraphy is the writing of Chinese characters as an art form, combining purely visual art and interpretation of the literary meaning. This type of expression has been widely practiced in China and has been generally held in high esteem across East Asia.

Calligraphy today is practiced by millions of Chinese. The great majority of practitioners are amateurs who find pleasure or artistic fulfillment in perfecting their script. But the number of professional calligraphers or calligrapher-artists is also substantial.

The Chinese calligraphy brush is literally named “Hairy brush/pen”, and as the name implies, consists of a tubular pen structure combined with fine hair. The tube of the brush is typically made of bamboo, though in modern times plastic is often used.

1a : artistic, stylized, or elegant handwriting or lettering. b : the art of producing such writing. 2 : penmanship. 3 : an ornamental line in drawing or painting.

China

100 BC

The first papermaking process was documented in China during the Eastern Han period (25–220 CE) traditionally attributed to the court official Cai Lun. During the 8th century, Chinese papermaking spread to the Islamic world, where pulp mills and paper mills were used for papermaking and money making.

3000 BC

As long ago as 3000 B.C., the ancient Egyptians constructed crude toothbrushes from twigs and leaves to clean their teeth.