History of Shang Dynasty: What were the main agricultural production tools in Shang and Yin Dynasties?

Yin dynasty was a society dominated by agriculture, but it was stagnant in the early stage. This is mainly due to clumsy production tools and backward farming methods.

The main agricultural production tools of Shang Dynasty

The common agricultural production tools in Shang ruins are sickles, hoes, shovels and hoes made of wood, stones, bones and mussels.

Polished flat stone shovel is the most common tool for digging or loosening soil. Clam shovel is made of natural mussels with a little polishing.

Bone shovels are generally made of bovine glue bone after splitting and repairing.

Sickle is a harvesting tool, mostly made of stone, and rarely made of mussels.

According to the literature, He Lei was the common tool in Shang agriculture. A short crossbar is fixed in a long place not too far from the tip. When stabbing soil, hold the upper end with your hands and put your feet horizontally on the ground. This is the original single-toothed mine. Later, it was gradually improved into a thunder with an oblique crank. The "f" in Oracle Bone Inscriptions is such a hieroglyph. The single-toothed wooden mine has two improvements. One is to add a hairpin tip at the lower part of the hairpin and change the single tooth into a square double tooth hairpin; First, the mine tip is widened to form a shovel head slightly similar to that of later generations, increasing the digging area. This is a shovel.

From 1958 to 1959, clear wood marks were found on many pit walls of yin deficiency syndrome, all of which were double teeth. For example, the big thunder mark found in the H305 pit in Xiaotun West has a tooth length of 19 cm, a tooth diameter of 7 cm and a tooth pitch of 8 cm. The small thunder mark found in H 1 12 in Dasikong Village has a tooth length of 18 cm, a tooth diameter of 4 cm and a tooth pitch of 4cm2. Oracle bone inscriptions have the word "lot" with ■ ("B" 7808), just like a person pushing it sideways and stabbing the ground with his foot. This is very similar to the Han Dynasty stone carving Shennong and other hand-held objects in Infinite Temple, and today's physical traces also confirm this point. Rem was a very important digging tool in Shang Dynasty.

The main crops of Shang dynasty

Among the crops planted at that time, from Oracle Bone Inscriptions, millet is the most recorded crop, and now it is called millet, also called rhubarb rice. There are millet, namely millet and millet. Millet and millet were the main food crops in Shang Dynasty, so Oracle Bone Inscriptions recorded the most years of millet (iron 248. 1) and millet (B 77 1). In addition, there are records of rice (①), wheat, barley (②) and wild rice, namely A (B) 32 12)③. The above cereal crops are not only the main food crops in Shang Dynasty, but also the main raw materials for wine making. There are many records of offering sacrifices with wine and rice in Oracle Bone Inscriptions. The word ■ is a special sweet wine, which is used to offer sacrifices to hundreds of people, such as the cloud: "■ Hundred cows and hundreds" (5.8.4 before) and "Hundred Qiang, with 300 in prison" (Yi 543).

From the records of ancient history, we can know that the prevalence of drinking at that time even became the cause of the demise of the Shang Dynasty. Wei Zi once pointed out the reasons for the Yin people's national subjugation, saying, "I used to indulge in wine, and I defeated my virtue with chaos. .. the poison of heaven, and Yin Zhou, prosperous and addicted to alcohol "("Shangshu Weizi "). Everything in the Woods also says: "Fear is the drink of the night" and "fear" is regarded as "joy". ) to lose this day. "At the end of Shang Dynasty, in general small tombs, pottery wine vessels symbolizing concubines have become indispensable funerary objects. Yin people's lack of alcohol can be seen here. From the prosperity of this drinking atmosphere and the number of remains of wine vessels, it can be explained that there was a surplus in grain production at that time, otherwise the development of wine-making industry would be impossible.