The downfall of the Shang Dynasty

The downfall of the Shang Civilisation happened at around 1150-1050BCE. The Shang Civilisation had ended when conquerors from the state of Zhou invaded the capital of Shang and successfully overthrown the Shang Dynasty. The Zhou conquerors had said that they had overthrown the Shang Dynasty because the king of the Shang Dynasty was evil and that he had lost the mandate of heaven and that heaven no longer wanted him to rule. They blamed the Shang's downfall on it's kings excessive drinking, indulgent lifestyle and his immoral behaviour.

There is evidence which is a novel called "Fengshen Yanyi"(translated as The Creation of the Gods), which was written in the Ming Dynasty. The story is about the decline of the Shang Dynasty and rise of the Zhou Dynasty. It is, to an extent, a representative and descriptive book of life in China at the time where religion had played a major part in daily life.