Jie of Xia

King Jie (Chinese: ; traditionally 1728 1675 BCE) 2.2 Alcohol lake
was the 17th and last ruler of the Xia dynasty of China.
He is traditionally regarded as a tyrant and oppressor who According to Liu Xiangs book Lien zhuan written
brought about the collapse of a dynasty.* [1]
much later, around 18 BCE, Jie was corrupted by his inwho
Around 1600 BCE, Jie was defeated by Tang of Shang, fatuation with his concubine Mo Xi ( or ),
*
*
was
beautiful,
but
completely
lacking
in
virtue.
[7]
[8]
bringing an end to the Xia Dynasty that lasted about 500
Among
other
things,
she
liked
to
drink,
enjoyed
music,
*
years, and a rise to the new Shang Dynasty. [2]
and also had a penchant for jugglers and sing-song girls.
Apparently, she had Jie order a lake of wine made.* [8]
They both sailed about in the alcohol lake in an orgy
1 Early years
of drunken naked men and women bathing and drinking.* [9] She then commanded 3,000 men to drink the
Jie is generally known as Xia Jie () or Jie of Xia. His lake dry, only to laugh when they all drowned.* [8]* [9]
given name was L Gui ().* [3] Jie ascended to the This event was also recorded in the Han Yings book
throne in the year of Renchen ().* [4]* [5] Initially, his Han shi waizhuan.* [9]* [10]
capital was in Zhenxun. He lived there for three years and
constructed his tilt palace.* [4]* [5] About the same time,
he destroyed the pyramid of Rong (), and quelled a 2.3 Jies cuisine
rebellion by the Quanyi people (aka Fei Barbarians) after
A great deal of eort was spent on Jies cuisine and his
they entered Qi, near Fen.* [4]* [5]
requirements. Vegetables had to come from the northHis parents were Fa of Xia and his wife.
west, sh had to be from the East Sea, seasonings and
sauces had to come from ginger that grew in the south,
sea salt had to come from the north.* [3] Several hundred
2 King of Xia
people were employed just to supply Jie with his meals.
Anyone that got his meal wrong was beheaded.* [3]

2.1

Ruling

Jie was also a known alcoholic, but he did not drink regular wine. He drank a type of pure alcohol wine ().
The people working for him who could not supply this
drink were killed.* [3] Many people died because of this.
And while he was drinking wine it was required that he
ride on someones back like a horse.* [3]

Jie is known to have lived a lavish lifestyle with slaves and

treated his people with extreme cruelty.* [3] His style of
ruling was reckless and lled with sex, luxury and entertainment.* [2] He generally disliked people who criticized
him, and many were indeed afraid of him.* [6]

In one incident Jie was riding the back of a top chancellor

like a horse. After a while the chancellor was tired to the
point that he could no longer crawl or move. He asked
King Jie to spare him. Jie immediately dragged him out
to be executed.* [3] Another chancellor, Guan Long-Feng
(), told the king that he was losing the trust of his
In his 13th year of ruling, he moved his capital from people along with the Xia dynastys rivers and mountains
yelling at Guan, he too was dragged out to
Zhenxun to Henan. About that time, he began using the (). After
*
be
killed.
[3]
Nian (), or sedan chair, on which he was carried by
servants.* [4]* [5]
In the sixth year of Jie's regime, he entertained envoys
from vassals and neighbours. He received an envoy from
the Qizhong barbarian people. In the 11th year, he summoned all his vassals to his court. The Youmin kingdom
did not come, so Jie attacked and conquered it.* [4]* [5]

The next year, he led an army to Minshan. There, he

3 Xia Dynasty collapse
found two of the King of Minshan's daughters, Wan and
Yan. They were unmarried and very beautiful, so he
took them as his wives, renaming them Zhao () and 3.1 The rise of Shang
Hua. He abandoned his original wife Mo Xi () and
built a pyramid on top of the Tilt Palace for them to live The Xia Dynasty held suzerainty over a number of kingin.* [4]* [5]
doms, one of which was the Kingdom of Shang. During
1

Jie's reign, Shang grew in power, initially at the expense

of Xia's other vassals. A person by the name of Tang
of Shang was able to win many supporters from as many
as 40 smaller kingdoms.* [11] Tang of Shang recognized
that Jie mistreated the people and used this as a way to
convince other supporters. In one speech Tang of Shang
said that creating chaos is not something he wanted, but
given the terror of Jie, he has to follow the mandate of
heaven and use this opportunity to overthrow Xia.* [11]
He also pointed out that even Jies own military generals would not obey his orders.* [11]

REFERENCES

troops from Er () to simultaneously attack Xia and

Kunwu. Kunwu was quickly defeated.* [4]* [5] By this
time, the Xia were getting weaker near the Yellow River
while the Shang were becoming stronger.* [6]
The Shang army then fought Jie's forces in the Battle of
Mingtiao, in a heavy thunder storm, and defeated the Xia
army.* [4]* [5]

Jie himself escaped and ed to Sanzong.* [4]* [5] The

Shang forces, under their general Wuzi (), pursued
Jie to Cheng, captured him at Jiaomen and deposed him,
bringing the Xia dynasty to an end. Eventually, Jie was
In the 15th year of Jies reign, Tang of Shang began mov- released in Nanchao.* [4]* [5]* [12] Jie eventually died of
ing L () to the capital Bo.* [4]* [5] About two years illness.* [11] Tang of Shang succeeded as king by Tang,
later Shang sent his minister Yi Yin as an envoy to Jie. who inaugurated the Shang Dynasty.
Yi remained in the Xia capital for about three years, before returning to Shang.* [4]* [5]

The Shangs power continued to grow. In the 26th year

of Jies reign, Shang conquered Wen. Two years later,
Shang was attacked by Kunwu (), and several years
of war between Shang and Kunwu followed.* [12] Despite
this setback, Shang continued to expand on a number of
fronts, gathering vassal troops in Jingbo ().* [4]* [5]
The Shang army and allied forces conquered Mixu (
) (today's ), Wei, and attacked Gu (), which
was also conquered the following year.* [12] Around the
same time Zhong Gu, chief historian of Jie, ed from the
Xia to the Shang.* [4]* [5]* [12]

3.2

Natural disasters

As Jies reign went on, the histories record unusual and

increasingly dire natural phenomenon. These began in the
10th year of Jies reign, when ve stars were seen in the
sky in alignment and a meteor shower occurred, followed
by an earthquake.* [4]* [5] It is documented that Jie also
saw themoney face() during this time but refused
to share it among his people, leading to the downfall of
the Xia dynasty.
In the 29th year of Jies reign he tried to dig a watertunnel through the Qu mountain, but the next year the
mountain collapsed with a landslide.* [4]* [5] There was
also a disaster at Linsui () in the winter.* [4]* [5]

4 See also
Mount Tai earthquake

5 References
[1] /. [2002] (2002) Chinese civilization in a new light
#1 . Publishing
Company. ISBN 962-07-5314-3. pg 150.
[2] . (2005) (2006) #1 .
. ISBN 962-8885-24-3. p 26.
[3] . (2005) (2006) #1 .
. ISBN 962-8885-24-3. p 27.
[4] Bamboo annals Xia chapter on Xia Jie under the name Gui
().
[5] Virginia.edu. "Virginia.edu contents of Bamboo annal.
Xia chapter. Retrieved on 2010-10-03.
[6] , . [2002] (2003) .
. Intelligence press. ISBN 962-8792-80-6. p 51.
[7] Virginia.edu. "Virginia.edu.etext scan. Retrieved on
2010-10-03.
[8] Lien zhuan () scroll 7 chapter on Jie of Xia with
Mo Xi
[9] S.J Marshall. [2002] (2002) The Mandate of Heaven:

Records from the later Qin Dynasty say that during the
Hidden History in the I Ching. Columbia university press.
last year of Jies reign, ice formed during the summer
ISBN 0-231-12299-3, ISBN 978-0-231-12299-3. p 177mornings and frost occurred through July. Heavy rainfall
178.
toppled buildings, hot and cold weather arrived in disorder, and crops failed. Some scientists correlate this event [10] Han shi waizhuan () scroll 2.
with a volcanic winter, possibly due to the Minoan erup- [11] . (2005) (2006) #1 .
tion of Thera circa 1628 BC.* [13]
. ISBN 962-8885-24-3. p 30.

3.3

Battle of Mingtiao

Main article: Battle of Mingtiao

In the 31st year of Jie's reign, Tang of Shang dispatched

[12] , . [2007] (2007). .

. ISBN 957-11-4312-X,
9789571143125. p46.
[13] Pang, Kevin (1985). Three Very Large Volcanic Eruptions in Antiquity and Their Eects on the Climate of the
Ancient World. Eos. 66 (46): 816.

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

6.1

Text

Jie of Xia Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jie_of_Xia?oldid=731126219 Contributors: Jiang, KuatofKDY, Dimadick, Robbot, Moncrief, Madw, Sam Hocevar, Klemen Kocjancic, Chmod007, Bender235, Mairi, Evangeline, CWH, Canadian Paul, Mendaliv, Benjwong,
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6.2

Images

File:Xiajie.png Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/Xiajie.png License: Public domain Contributors: File:

Xiajie.jpg Original artist: User:Shibo77

6.3

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