The ShÄng Dynasty (Chinese: ) or YÄ«n Dynasty () (ca. 1766 BC - ca. 1050 BC) is the first confirmed historic Chinese Dynasty and ruled in the northeastern region of the area known as "China proper", in the Yellow River valley. The ShÄng dynasty followed the quasi-legendary Xià Dynasty and preceded the ZhÅu Dynasty. Information about the Shang Dynasty comes from historical records of the Zhou Dynasty and from Shang inscriptions on bronze artifacts and oracle bones—turtle shells, cattle scapula or other bones on which were written the first significant corpus of recorded Chinese characters.