Architecture

=Architecture of Shang China = Brittany Loveland = = I believe that the architecture during the Bronze Age of the Shang Dynasty reflects the social inequality of the era and is used to separate the different statuses from each other. Until around 100 or so years ago, the Shang Dynasty was thought of to be a myth. In 1928 though, Anyang (also called Yin) the last capital of the Shang Dynasty, was the first site to be excavated and proved the myth to be fact, not fiction. Some other important sites that have been found include: Zhengzhou, (where most of the architectural evidence comes from), Shixianggou, (which may or may not have been the first capital of this dynasty), and Panlongcheng (middle Shang), are also important discoveries that gives us a glimpse of the different architecture used to separate the social classes. (Congrong, 2008)
 * The architecture of Bronze Age Shang China reflects the social and **** political inequality of the stratified classes. **

To understand the architecture found at sites during the Shang Dynasty, it is important to take a quick look at the archaeology of its predecessors. As early as the Neolithic era, people of China began living in natural caves that progressed through time into “den residences.” These residences were caves that were man-made and built into homes so that more people could live in them. Continuing on through time, the people learned to make buildings with thatch, wood and pounded earth or “pise”. (Congrong, 2008) These were referred to as “nest dwellings” and there were two types: homes built on platforms with poles and homes built over shallow pits. These types of houses lasted for a long time and continued to exist during and throughout the Shang Dynasty as the pit-houses were used by slaves and the platform, pounded earth houses were used by slave owners. (Website:Pasadena) The site of Erlitou (1900 -1500 B.C.E.) which directly predates the Shang Dynasty, is looked at in association with the era for its architecture and the way its buildings are planned out. The city was approximately 300 hectares and contained some similar types of structures found in the Shang era. These structures included at least one sizeable temple or palace and a large area of production spaces for crafts. Included in the palace structure were walls built with wood beams, wood columns and rammed earth and a covered, sort of tiled arcade that went exactly from north to south. (Xinxian, 2002) They had thatched roofs also along with mud on the walls. For the city of Erlitou there were actually two palaces or temples that the craft workshops surrounded. Because the city was so big, it was able to hold a vast population. (Yoffee, 2005) If the large buildings are indeed considered palaces than it shows how inequality was already starting to develop by the time the Shang era was beginning.

Supposedly, there is evidence written on bronze, that there were seven capital cities: Xibo, Ao, Xiang, Geng, Xing, Yan and Yin. Shixianggou is thought to be the first capital Xibo. The whole city is bordered by a wall on all sides. There are about 5 palaces located at this site but it is not the best known site for this era. There is a lot more archaeological evidence for the sites Zhengzhou and Anyang (with the town of Panlongcheng thrown into the mix) to give a really good analysis of how the classes were stratified and keep separately from each other. Basically, there wasn’t as much information on this site and the information that was found about was all in Chinese, a language I do not know how to read.

Moving on through time to the n ext site, there is a famous archaeological location situated in the Henan province that may have been the second capital, Ao, called Zhengzhou (1500 – 1300 B.C.E.) What was found in this region were the foundations of city walls, along with other sizeable foundation of buildings. (Website: NGA) This city was bordered by a wall of rammed earth which had three almost straight sides and one that was abnormal. Norman Yoffee has a diagram in his book “Myths of the Archaic State”, Figure 3.13, that shows a map of where the city’s palace is located and how not only is there a wall surrounding the capital, but also a wall surrounding the palaces. The wall described previously was the inner city wall that encircles the palaces for about seven kilometers, while the outer city wall either wasn’t complete or was not excavated. The figure also shows how workshops, along with houses, were located only outside the Inner city wall to beyond the outer city wall. That implies a direct separation of classes. Only those who were royalty or wealthy enough were living within the inner wall while everyone else who worked in bone and pottery workshops, or some other form of craft work, were located outside of it. There is also evidence that shows how there are funerary burials on the exterior of the Outer city wall as well. (Xinian,2002) The whole city was situated directly north to south with the palace on a raised foundation of pounded earth in the heart of the capital. With the foundation high up, it makes it easier for everyone to see it somewhere in the city. The implication from this is that the ruler or king who lived there was the most important since they would be in the cent er of everything going on in the metropolis. With such attention directed to the palace, and the implications of having distinct walls to physically separate the wealthy from the commoner, the site of Zhengzhou is good evidence to support how architecture of this dynasty is used as a reflection of its stratified social classes. = = To continue on to another site that represents inequality, Panglongchang is a small town (only 7.5 Hectares) within Hubei Province that archaeologists believe may have been a political outpost for the southern region. (Bugucki,1999) There is one huge main building whose roof was around 10 feet from the ground and had multiple rooms. Known as the Great Building at Panlongchang, it was also on a raised foundation making the building seem even larger (a trait that is common for palaces throughout the different sites of Bronze Age China.) From the evidence of imported goods from the north, it is believed that perhaps a prince lived at this site, as only royalty would be allowed to live in such a huge building. Th e repeated sequence of a great house surrounded by smaller units for the regular folk continues in this region. As an outpost, the town is surrounded by Lake Panlong on three sides and has walls to protect the last side. (Schinz, 1996) These must have been used as a form of defense since it was at the southern most portion of the Dynasty. = =

= = = = The last site I’ll mention is the site of Anyang or Yin, located in Henan province. It is known as the last capital before the Zhou dynasty took over and it is also famously known for the tomb of Lady Fu Hao, a burial rich with archaeological information on the wealthy of the Shang Dynasty. Anyang was measured as being approximately 6 kilometer east to west by 4 kilometers north to south (Congrong, 2008) and was generally divided into two separate sections of excavation; the predominantly residential areas and the predominantly funerary areas. (Xinian, 2002) I’ll be revealing more about the residential areas, as there is already a section on the funeral district and burials of Bronze Age Shang China. For the residential area there was one large main palace area with another elite residence section both located near the Huan River, and finally smaller, sometimes more modest multi-roomed houses nearby them. Running from north to south there were a string of gates, courtyards and halls but no evidence for restricting walls have been found surrounding the city yet. (Congrong, 2008) With the main palaces high up and near the river, the elites never had to wor ry about the river flooding their quarters. Numerous stairways were positioned at the front while each building had multiple chambers and there was a drainage system that was found throughout the palace and temple area. (Xinian, 2008) The residences around it were mostly oriented from north to south also and Mausoleums were found mostly to the north and east. There were a few of the houses here and there that lined up more towards the east-west directions. This suggests a sort of grid pattern with a river in between and = = everyone who was not royalty or wealthy was located in the dwellings outside of the great houses, a potential victim for flooding. Whitewash may have been used on the walls inside the buildings along with plaster. Towards the end of the Dynasty, architecture had developed more stone columns for these walls with the use of bronze plating included also. Though Anyang, along with the rest of the cities in China, was taken over by the Zhou rulers around 1046 B.C.E., thus bringing about the end to what we know as Bronze Age Shang China. = = As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, I won’t be mentioning very much burial information at all as there is already another section on it, but I would like to point out that burials are also very important architectural structures of an area. The information that a person can receive from studying a funeral site can range from how important a person is by seeing how many objects and sacrifices they are buried with, to how simple and modest a person is by being buried with little to nothing at all. As with Lady Fu Hao, you can find the evidence of having feasts when a person died and what that means to the society. Either way, burial sites are an important reflection of the social inequality of a society, and Shang China is no exception.

For all of these sites, there was some very good archaeological evidence to support my theory that the architecture was used to enhance the stratification of the society. Palaces were by far the most important aspects of the cities, with everything else falling by the wayside. The foundations for most of them can be used to exemplify their importance and make them the center of the society. Commoners went from living in caves towards the beginning of the era to living in small, multi-chambered, thatched roof houses. Whether a person was a king living in a huge palace or a slave living in a cave, the architecture of the Bronze Age was unique, and continues to be a very fascinating and valuable subject for archaeological adventurers of all kinds.

Bibliography Bogucki, Peter; The Origins of Human Society, 1999; [] ; Wiley-Blackwell.

Congrong, He; 2008, [] Mar 27,2009

Shniz, Alfred; __The Magic Square: Cities in Ancient China__; 1996 []; Edition Axel Menges.

Loewe, Michael and Edward L. Shaughnessy; __The Cambridge history of ancient **China** : from the origins of civilization to 221 B.C.__ Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1999.

Xinian, Fu and Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt, Chinese Architecture, 2002; []; Yale University Press.

Yoffee, Norman__; Myths of the Archaic State: Evolution of the Earliest Cities, States, and Civilizations.__ 2004, New York: Cambridge University Press

Websites Cultural Resources: Chinese Language Program; [] The Great Bronze Age of China: An Exhibition from the People's Republic of China; [] The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology; [] Shang Dynasty Architecture; [] Xia, Shang, and Zhou Dynasties; []

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