shang dynasty project
Storyboard Text
- Shang society can be divided into six social classes. The king and his relatives were in the highest class. Below them were the nobles, artisans, traders, farmers, and slaves.
- Kings and relatives
- After the ruling family the nobles made up the highest ranking social class. Nobles fought in the king's armies and supplied them with weapons, foot soldiers, and chariots. In exchange for their military help the king was unlikely to interfere with the nobles control over the land.
- Nobel class
- This talented group formed a small social class that included potters, stonemasons, and workers crafting items of bronze and jade.
- artisan class
- Scholars believe that the shang traded extensively. One clue comes from the modern chinese word for “merchant” shang ren, which would also mean “shange man”.
- Trader class
- They worked small plots of land, growing millet, heat, barley, rice, fruit, vegetables, and nuts. They did not own the land they farmed since it was under the control of either the king or the nobles. Farmers gave most of their harvest to the nobles, who sent a portion to the king.
- Farmer class
- At the very bottom of shange society were slaves many of whom were prisoners ohey spend their lives building tombs and palaces. then their masters died, the slaves were sometimes sacrificed in keeping with the shang belief that slaves should continue to serve their masters in the afterlife.
- Slave class
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