Shang

The Shang is the first Chinese dynasty that left writing of its own. When a Shang king faced a big question, he asked the gods: the question was carved on a turtle shell or an ox bone, fire cracked the shell, and the answer was read from the cracks.

Those carved characters are oracle bone script, the ancestor of today's Chinese characters. With writing, Shang history stops being legend: Pan Geng moving the capital to Yin, King Wu Ding fighting beside the general Fu Hao, the fall of King Zhou — all leave traces.

The great Houmuwu cauldron from the Yinxu ruins weighs more than 800 kilograms; its bronze craft amazes even today's smiths. Here the Shang of the books meets the Shang of the ground.