There are three things to know about the Shang. One, they were the most advanced bronze-working civilization in the world. Two, Shang remains provide the earliest and most complete record of Chinese writing – (there are a few Neolithic pots that have a few characters scratched on them; however, a few characters do not make a complete writing system – scratched out on the shoulder blades of pigs for oracular purposes. And three, they were quite possibly the most blood-thirsty pre-modern civilization. They liked human sacrifice -- a lot. If a king died, then more than one hundred slaves would join him in the grave. Some of them would be beheaded first. Some of them were just thrown in still alive. Later dynasties replaced the humans with terra-cotta figures, resulting in things like the underground army. They also did things like human sacrifice for building consecrations and other ceremonial events. The Shang had a very odd system of succession: instead of a patrilineal system where power was passed from father to son, the kingship passed from elder brother to younger brother, and when there were no more brothers, then to the oldest maternal nephew.