Shang And Zhou Dynasties: Similarities And Differences

In the Dynastic cycle, the Shang and Zhou Dynasties of ancient China showed similar periods of decline. They had both similarities and differences. Both Dynasties had an authoritarian type of government, Which means that they both have one main ruler with lots of power that gives only a little power to the government. Starting off, there were many similarities between the Shang and Zhou dynasties. During their rule, both Shang and Zhou leaders started ignoring the needs of the people and not only the poor. Both leaders only cared about their wealth and not the problems of the people. They started giving only a little money to the wealth. Well, both Dynasties were similar in some way they also had some differences. After Shang rulers started

allowing local lords to rule on their own they started losing wealth so they grew corrupt and started taking tax money and instead of paying the army they kept it for themselves so they could get wealthier. A little unlike Shang rulers Zhou rulers had written laws but those laws only benefited the wealthy. As Zhou rulers gave only a little power to governors so the counsel started demanding more power. The Shang ruler had it way worse. Since they did not pay the army the military started to decline and some and some famous warriors started to rebel. Although both dynasties had the dynasty found, you cannot have the mandate of heaven forever so they both started going through periods of prosperity and that led to periods of decline which will eventually lead to periods of rebellion. Well, both dynasties gave a really good example of their similarities and differences in the dynastic cycle and the way each part lead throughout the whole cycle made it clear on the mandate of heaven was given and taken away. Starting off with the similarities would help determine how both dynasties were similar in some way, but that would also help us determine the differences in both dynasties. Both dynasties could improve some things to try to make the mandate of heaven stay longer in their hands. One thing they could do is to try not to be greedy and give some money out to the poor and try to pay the army more to the military doesn’t decline. Another thing they could do is actually focus more on the problems of the economy instead of only caring about keeping their wealth so that the economy does not start to decline.