c. 1600–1046 BC earliest Chinese written historical records and bronze metallurgy contemporaneous with the Exodus era
The earliest verified historical dynasty of ancient China, centered in the Yellow River valley, famous for monumental bronze sacrificial vessels, chariot warfare, and over 150,000 oracle bone inscriptions (jiaguwen) on turtle plastrons and ox scapulae.
Rigorous 4-part empirical analysis separating ancient text from bias and consensus
Inscribed scapulae record pyromantic divinations made on behalf of the Shang kings (such as Wu Ding, c. 1250 BC) questioning the high deity Shangdi and royal ancestors about rainfall, crops, warfare, and childbearing.
Provides parallel global civilizational synchronism: while Israel was experiencing the Egyptian Sojourn, Exodus, and Wilderness wandering under Moses in the Near East, China was consolidating its first literate bronze-age empire.
Sinologists study the high monotheistic characteristics of the supreme sky god 'Shangdi' (Lord on High) in early Shang religion, which later Christian translators (James Legge) adopted to translate God/YHWH into Chinese.
Sacred royal divinatory records legitimizing the Shang king as the sole earthly mediator between human society and ancestral spiritual powers.