Rise of Shang Dynasty, First of Centralized Chinese Dynasties

The chiefs of the Han tribes of the Yellow River selected the Head of the house of Di as the first Shang king and founded the Shang Dynasty in the course of 16th Century B. C. The dynastic capital was established in the ancient city of Anyang which is the modern region of Yin. The king of the Shang Dynasty held both paramount military power and paramount spiritual authority as the leader of the royal war chiefs and the head priest of the Royal Temple. The Shang Dynasty was divided into the larger directly administered royal fiefdoms and the smaller independently administered principalities. The central royal government was headed by the council of the royal war chiefs, in which its head member exercised the powers of the present- day prime minister. The economy of the Shang Dynasty was based on early agricultural practices like farming, fishing, and animal husbandry and domestication. And the Shang Dynasty presided over a long history of five centuries until it was overthrown by one of its former vassal states, the Zhou.