The Shang disappeared from history for millennia before chance discoveries in the early 20th century revealed a glimpse of China's first great dynasty. More than 3,500 years ago, the Shang created a state on the Yellow River from where they came to dominate an extensive empire. As this book reveals, over the last 100 years, historians have built a detailed picture of a highly sophisticated civilisation, which laid the foundations for much of modern Chinese life.

Each book in the Great Empires series covers a particular empire or regional series of empires, charting its history from its rise to its eventual fall. Concise text and supporting boxes explore the reasons for the empire's success-and its failure-and explain the mechanics of governing the empire and the experience of living under it.