Yinxu, the capital of the Late Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BC), is China’s archaeological holy land. Since the identification of oracle bones near what is today the city of Anyang at the turn of the 20th century, through the first official archaeological digs at the site in the 1920s, and later astounding discoveries like the tomb of the warrior queen Fu Hao, Yinxu has exerted a particular hold on the imaginations of generations of Chinese.

But most of what we know about the Shang pertains to a narrow slice of society: the nobility, priesthood, and royal family.

Take the oracle bones, for example. The inscriptions — over a hundred thousand have been unearthed to date — cover everything from politics and the economy to culture and state ideology. However, only the royal family had the right to summon diviners and inscribe their questions onto turtle shells or ox bones. The record they represent is as fascinating as it is limited, full of questions like “Will my hunting trip be successful?” or “Will it rain soon?”

Another example is bronze artifacts. The bronze vessels unearthed from Yinxu represent some of the most exquisite artifacts of the Bronze Age discovered to date. But while scholars previously believed that bronze was extensively used in agriculture and craftsmanship during the Shang, the evidence now suggests that Shang production primarily relied on stone, wood, shell, and bone implements. Bronze vessels were mainly crafted for ritual purposes and as weapons for warfare, symbolizing and upholding the authority, power, and ideology of the ruling class.

But what about the rest of society? Researchers believe that, at its peak, the permanent population of Yinxu may have been as high as 300,000, the majority of whom were commoners: artisans, merchants, and servants.

He Yuling, head of the Anyang Workstation at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ Institute of Archaeology, says that Late Shang society consisted of three social strata: at the top were the royal family and nobles, accounting for approximately 7% to 10% of the total population. Their tombs were large, filled with exquisite grave goods, as well as numerous human and animal sacrifices. At the bottom were slaves, constituting 3% to 4% of the population; these were buried haphazardly without coffins or grave goods. Between these extremes were the commoners, making up 82% to 87% of the population. Their tombs were generally smaller (often less than 3 square meters), lacked human sacrifices, and typically contained only pottery offerings.

But it was this group that would have formed the backbone of Shang society. Only through their labor, whether in construction, agriculture, handicrafts, or animal husbandry, could the city function, the state machinery operate, and the aristocrats’ bronze vessels be manufactured.

“In the oracle bone inscriptions, the Shang royal family refers to these people as ‘the multitudes’ or ‘the hundred artisans,’” He says.

But apart from rudimentary tombs, grave goods, and occasional mentions in the oracle bones, these “multitudes” seemed to have left little trace. Now, new discoveries are finally giving archaeologists and historians some insight into their lives.

By the standards of 1000 BC, the living conditions of Shang commoners were not too harsh. The city had a developed road system composed of main thoroughfares, streets, and alleys, as well as a water network consisting of aqueducts, main channels, various tributaries, and reservoirs. The water channels even featured ceramic pipes, and wells were equipped with rudimentary filters.

Significantly, unlike many ancient cities, Yinxu lacked city walls. Scholars often attribute this to the Shang’s dominance over China’s central plain. Its kings likely felt no need to build walls for self-defense — after all, they were the ones waging wars elsewhere.

However, the absence of walls did not mean that commoners could freely come and go. Rather, most of their lives were likely spent within specific areas of the city where they were born, grew up, worked, and eventually were buried.

These areas, known as “clan towns,” each had its own distinct identity. They comprised residential areas, production zones, and communal burial grounds. Within these towns, families lived, worked, and were laid to rest side by side, their funerary practices echoing their shared heritage.

This complex urban system allowed Late Shang craftsmanship to reach remarkable heights. Bronze vessels grew tremendously in size during this period, as exemplified by the Houmuwu Ding discovered in 1939 at Yinxu. Standing 133 centimeters tall and weighing a staggering 833 kilograms, it remains the largest and heaviest bronze container ever found in China.

According to Su Rongyu, a metallurgical archaeologist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, advances in bronze technology were the product of aggressive military campaigns waged to the kingdom’s south. Wu Ding, perhaps the dynasty’s best-known monarch and a rough contemporary of Ramses II, captured large numbers of bronze artisans and relocated them to the capital, where they exchanged their knowledge with the Shang’s own craftsmen.

Although not technically slaves, valued craftsmen were tightly controlled by the Shang court. Wang Di, a researcher at the Anyang Archaeological Station, says that the bronze workshops discovered in Yinxu primarily existed to produce ritual vessels, and the craftsmen families responsible for their production were likely closely monitored by the royal family. By controlling these families, the royal family could control the bronze casting techniques needed for ritual practice, encouraging innovation while confining their work to the capital.

Not all of Yinxu’s craftsmen were devoted to bronze working, however. Numerous bone implements have been unearthed from the city, covering everything from tools, utensils, and weapons to musical instruments, ornaments, and artwork.

Li Zhipeng, an animal archaeology expert, has conducted years of fieldwork at three bone workshop sites at Yinxu in an effort to reconstruct the ancient techniques used in their creation.

His research suggests that the bone materials used by Shang craftsmen were sourced from a wide variety of animals including cattle, water buffalo, pigs, sheep, and deer, but that cows were the most common choice. Regardless of their origin, the bones were subjected to a careful selection process, and craftsmen skillfully removed irregularities before production.

Unlike the closely guarded secrets of bronze ritual vessels, bone artifacts were not considered “state secrets.” Instead, they likely served as commodities.

“A conservative estimate of the combined area of the three main bone workshops at Yinxu would be around 60,000 square meters,” Li says. “In our sampling area, on average, the bones of six to seven cattle can be found per square meter. This implies that the bones of at least 300,000 to 400,000 cattle were used to make bone artifacts.”

“Such a vast quantity of bone artifacts would have far exceeded the consumption needs of the royal family and nobility,” Li adds. “Therefore, archaeologists believe that the products of the bone workshops at Yinxu were likely also sold to the general populace and even traded to areas beyond the Shang capital.”

Specialization did not exempt artisans from menial work set by the Shang kings. Ancient oracle bone inscriptions point to practices like corvée labor among the populace, in which nobles conscripted commoners for tasks like land cultivation and farming on their estates. And when the Shang waged their frequent wars against neighboring lands, artisans would have been expected to take up arms. The relentless records of conquest and battle etched in oracle bone inscriptions merely hint at the toll these conflicts would have taken on Yinxu’s civilian populace.

Nevertheless, there was still time and space for leisure. The houses of commoners were certainly not luxurious — many were semi-subterranean structures spanning a mere 10 square meters — but they were still home. There, residents would kneel — chairs had not been invented yet — and share meals with their families. The staple food was usually millet; occasionally, they would have meat, with the most common types being beef, mutton, and pork.

But alcohol was the centerpiece. Booze was a shared passion among the Shang people, from the nobility to the common folk. In Shang tombs excavated at Yinxu, any deceased person above a certain status would be buried with bronze drinking vessels — at least a goblet and a jue wine vessel. Commoners could not afford such luxury, so they used pottery goblets and jue vessels instead. Other burial items could be omitted, but wine was an absolute necessity in the afterlife.

Even in the depths of intoxication, however, Shang craftsmen probably never dreamed that they might outlast their masters. Yet, after more than 3,000 years, most of the bodies belonging to members of the Shang royal family and nobility have decomposed into mud in their coffins, while the bodies found in small tombs belonging to commoners are in much better condition.

Archaeologists who have studied the phenomenon believe the cause lies in the burial items: the large quantities of bronze artifacts buried in medium and large tombs rusted, accelerating the corrosion of human bones in the vicinity. Ultimately, the Shang kings were consumed by the very forces they had once ruled. 

(Header image: A bronze hand on display, Yinxu Museum, May 2024. Wu Huiyuan/Sixth Tone)