There can no longer be any doubt that it was in China that the art of bronze was born. It only took the ancient Chinese a few centuries to attain the highest degree of mastery in the art, as proved by the pieces found at Anyang; this suggests that the beginnings of the Bronze Age may perhaps have coincided with those of the Shang dynasty . . . Bronze-casting brought with it on the one hand a number of highly important technical innovations such as horse-drawn chariots, writing, calendars, and new architectural forms, and, on the other, a social dichotomy that was to be of vital importance for Chinese history, by which society was divided into townsfolk (warrior noblemen and hunters) and the peasantry. —Jacques Gernet, Ancient China: From Beginnings to the Empire, 1964

How did bronze-casting affect life in ancient China? How might bronze-casting have made life easier for the ancient Chinese?