Urbanism and the king in ancient China

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Abstract
A thorough understanding of the Shang political system is the key to any productive discussion of the beginning of urbanization and civilization in China. The earliest cities were loci of the royal lineages, which were the apex of the newly created class structure. The basic exploitative technology underwent little change from the Neolithic to the Shang, and the emergence of the great Shang civilization was based on a reorganized distribution of wealth, which enabled the concentration of society's resources in the hands of the ruling class. Ironically, while much of the greatest material achievement in Shang civilization — or perhaps any civilization ‐ is wasteful in terms of human needs, in posterity such achievements honour all the people they represent, the ruler and the ruled. Is greatness possible only in such terms, or are the archaeologist's criteria for greatness cockeyed in the first place?

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