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3,000 Years Ago in China and Japan

Shang At about 1700 BC, the first truly historical Chinese kingdom arose under the Shang dynasty. The Shang was an agriculturally advanced state. Most of the people of the Shang kingdom were peasant farmers living in small villages, ruled by a small elite of nobles.

Writing was used and bronze metal working had begun. The Shang formed the foundation, or "mother culture", for almost all the other Chinese civilizations to follow. The Shang state was destroyed and replaced by the Chou Kingdom, which lasted from about 1000-400 BC. The Chou were once ruled by the Shang.

Iron use in China dates to between 800 and 500 BC. By the latter date, evidence of iron smelting in Wu state of southern China has been found. Shang and early Zhou cultures had used iron from meteorites, but only a few small objects could be made as this was rare to find. The use of iron ore mined form the ground came later. Iron working skills were probably introduced by the steppe nomads of north (the Scythians). One reason iron working spread so slowly in China was because of the high quality of the bronze produced, which remained superior to the poor quality of iron first available.

The late Chou period saw a great flourishing of philosophical thought. This was a time of chaos, as the once powerful Chou state broke down into civil war, called the "Epoch of the Warring States", which lasted from 403-221 BC (finally ended by the rise of the great Han empire). K'ung fu-tzu (Confucius, 551-479 BC) held a philosophy that emphasized social order based on a strict patriarchal family model, that is, a family where the father held absolute rule. Confucianism tended to lead to centralized monarchies under the rule of an all-powerful king or emperor. Laws were rigid and administered by a bureaucracy produced by a state education system.

Radically different was the Taoist religion, thought to have been started by the semi-legendary philosopher Lao Tze who lived at about the same time as Confucius. Lao Tze used the natural world as the model where everything grows and develops according to its own nature. Instead of the rule of laws and tradition of Confucianism, Taoists saw a perfect society where there was much more individualism, every one and thing following its own natural path or "Tao". Less well known than either Lao Tze or Confucius is Mo Ti. Living in a time of chronic warfare in the 5th century BC, he believed in a philosophy of universal love, and called for an end to all wars of aggression.

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