All our knowledge of the Shang period 商 states derives either from the traditional historiographies that were written many centuries after the state of Yin 殷 had vanished, or by the inscriptions found on the archival oracle bones. The terminology of later ages is of course anachronistic, like the term "feudal lords" (zhuhou 諸侯), or various titles of ministers and government officials. The state of Yin was the center of the world, all other states and communities - either friendly or hostile - belonged to the various regions (fang). In many cases the suffix -fang even refered to hostile peoples, like the Guifang 鬼方 "Ghost barbarians" that roamed the area of modern Shaanxi north. Princes (zi 子) of the royal lineage (wangzu 王族), sons or brothers of the ruling king, were controlling a domain in most cases not far from the core area of the Yin state. Still linked with the royal lineage were the royal cousins of lineages of princes (zizu 子族), the royal sideline (xiaoshi 小示), that often possessed large domains and were able to field their own armies and to collect their own taxes in grain and kind. A third group of people linked to the royal lineage were relatives of consorts or groups that were otherwise intensively allied with the kings of Yin. Among them we even find people that were of different ethnic origin, like the Qiang 羌 from the west. The royal domains were administered by various officials for different tasks, like field officers (tian 田), pastural officers (mu 牧), guard officers (wei 衛) or hunting officers (quan 犬). It is not yet known if these people were simple government officials or if they acted on behalf of their own as independant. The last group of dependencies were lords (hou 侯 "marquises", bo 伯 "counts") of other states that sometimes acted as allies of the kings of Yin, sometimes changed side and attacked Yin, like the case of Zhou 周. The city of Yin and the surrounding area of about 30 sq.kms constituted the center of the Shang realm. The domains of certain affiliated lords stretched even further to the west. Culturally, the Shang realm extended far into Shandong, Zhejiang, Liaojing and even Shaanxi, Huan and Sichuan. But politically, the city state of Yin did not cover such a large area. The Shang kings allied with the lords of surrounding their domains. These allies presented tributes to the Shang kings, consisting of war captives and slaves, cattle, but also turtle shells and scapulas for the purpose of divination as an extremely important part of the political executive. During war, the various lords supported the kings of Yin with soldiers. The existance of archives where oracle bones baring inscriptions were stored shows that the kings of Yin depended on a kind of simple bureaucracy where officers recorded governmental activities like the opening of soil, war campaigns, reception of tributes and charging people with certain offices or tasks. Such records might have been written down with brush and ink on wooden or bamboo tablets or slips (ce 冊). The diviners or shamans (wu 巫) and their aides thus acted as royal historiographers. Certainly, the organisation of the various workshops in the capital, the collection of taxes from the peasants, i.e. an obvious stage of labour division, also required a certain stage of bureaucratic hierarchy. People filling the highest posts in this hierarchy stemmed from families that had close relationships with the royal house. Personal relationship thus defines already this early stage of Chinese civilisation. Traditional histories about the Shang period, like the Yin chapter of the Shiji 史記 or the Bamboo Annals present lists of the Shang rulers. Although we are able to recognize all names of this list on oracle bones, the familiary relationship between the rulers can only be painfully reconstructed on the base of the inscriptions on the scapulimantic relics on the oracle bones. Posthumous temple names of Yin kings are in most cases confined in a strict pattern of nomenclature, like da 大 "the Great", zhong 中 "the Middle", xiao 小 "the Smaller", or zu 祖 "the Ancestor", if belonging to the royal main-line. The second part of the temple name is in all cases one of the ten Celestial Stems (tiangan 天干) that were normally used in counting days by a sexagenary cycle, like Di Xin (Dixin) 帝辛 "God-ancestor VIII", Zu Geng (Zugeng) 祖庚 "Ancestor VII", Wu Ding (Wuding) 武丁 "Martial IV". It can be observed that these "numbers" are alternating between relatively few stems, a case that might be the result of alternating throne succession of different lineage groups of princes. In pre-Anyang times kings often succeeded their own brother to the throne. Ancestors of elder generations and consorts of the kings were likewise adresses by temple names incorporating a number of the Celestial Stems, like Xiong Ji (Xiongji) 兄己 "Older Brother VI", Fu Ji (Fuji) 父己 "Father VI", or Mu Bing (Mubing) 母丙 "Mother III", Bi Xin (Bixin) 妣辛 "Consort VIII".

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