The first pre-historic dynasty of the Chinese Civilization was known to be Xia (2100 BC-1600 BC), who believed in the myths of Pangu and presumed that mythological rulers like Huang Di, Yao and Shun taught the ancient Chinese the art of communication and survival. The excavations made in the 20th century at early bronze-age places like Anyang in the Henan Province revealed the prehistoric texts and urban civilization of Shang Dynasty and confirmed the existence of Xia.
The Shang dynasty (1700 BC-1027 BC) was founded by a revolutionary leader after conquering over the last Xia ruler. Anyang, was the capital of this dynasty, and the inhabitants were mainly into agriculture, hunting and animal husbandry. This period marked two significant events like development of script and bronze metallurgy that made evident the high levels of civilization. Monarchy was into practice and rituals to appease the spirits and sacred ancestors were highly developed. To preserve the monarchial interests, various valuables and sometimes also commoners, who might have been the slaves to the king, were buried alive with the royal corpse in the tomb.
The last Shang ruler was a tyrant and was defeated by the frontier tribe leader, Zhou. Thus, began the Zhou period (1021 BC-221 BC) which lasted the longest of other dynasties. The capital was set at Hao, near the city of Xi’an. The Zhou rulers gradually sinicized the customs and language of the Shang to most of the China province. The philosophers in this era first expressed the principles of “mandate of heaven”, the belief that the ruler is established by the divine right and his dethronement proves his inability to the mandate. The Zhou period also practiced the political and economy structures where-in the fee or a tax system was introduced.
In 771 BC the Zhou court was dismissed and conquered by barbarians. The capital was shifted eastwards to Luoyang, yet again in the Henan Province. This shift caused the formation of Western Zhou (1027 BC-771 BC) and Eastern Zhou (770 BC-221 BC). With this shift, the power of the Zhou court slowly reduced and the partition further continued dividing the Eastern Zhou into two sub periods, namely the Spring and Autumn period (770 BC-476 BC), and the Warring States period (475 BC-221 BC).
These two sub periods observed an unparalleled era of cultural prosperity, termed as the “Golden Age” of China. The politics, military, economic, culture and technology all prospered during this era. Due to the enormous transformations in various fields in the late Spring, Autumn and the early Warring States period, the era was known as the Hundred Schools of Thought. Many travelling intellectuals besides from teaching the Chinese practices also became advisors to state rulers in the government, war and peacekeeping.
This era has witnessed the preaching of Confucius who believed in an ideal social and political order. He portrayed that the person who is virtuous is fit to rule. His ideal was the junzi, which meant a gentleman with high ethical values.
Mencius and Xun Zi, both Confucius disciples had opposing views about human behavior and they brought in the principles of Legalism. Taoism was another main thought developed in the Zhou period which was different from Confucian morals and believed that every individual should have own adjustments.
