Sketchy History | Xia Dynasty (maybe)

Xia Dynasty (maybe)

WHAT? Max Facts at the beginning of the post? What crazy idea will this man have next?

We are officially entering the dynastic period of China. I’d like to emphasize, however, that while the term “dynasty” may invoke images of magnificent castles and glamorously clothed rulers, in reality, the first three dynasties (especially the Xia, which didn’t even have bronze yet) were still transitioning between tribal and autocratic rule. Though I will mainly focus on the stories of kings, for the first thousand or so years of Chinese history, politics was dominated by not just the monarch, but also a slave-owning aristocracy below him. As for the “extravagant” structures built by corrupt rulers of this time, they would likely be considered quite unimpressive today, since they were only grandiose by the standards of the primitive society that enveloped the Yellow River...

The Rise of the Xia Dynasty

We begin this post with the story of Yu the Great, the founder of the Xia Dynasty, and a hero in Chinese legends.

Remember Yu the Great, the guy who fixed the flooding problem? Well, in the 13 years it took him to solve the problem, his wife gave birth to a child. Below is a depiction of Yu definitely being a good dad.

The above story is the famous tale of Yu “passing his home three times and refusing to enter once.” (三过家门而不入) Now, depending on where you’re from, (and what values your culture emphasizes), this story likely elicits very different reactions from different people. Here’s how the two cultures I grew up with would react.

Max Facts! I know to many readers of this story, it’s incomprehensible how a man like Yu could be worshiped for so long after doing such terrible things to his family. But this actually emphasizes the key cultural differences between China and the West. Whereas the West tends to place a heavier emphasis on the family unit, and being loyal to that family, Chinese culture tends to place a greater emphasis on duty above all else. It really shows in this simple anecdote!

Yu’s son, Qi (启), was probably quite traumatized by his absent father. Even worse for him, Yu wouldn’t even give him the throne following his death!

If you had read the previous blog post, the final comic likely gave the impression that Yu had procrastinated so much in finding a successor that he ended up dying without one. That actually is not historically accurate. Instead, Yu followed in his predecessors’ tradition by appointing Bo Yi (伯益) as his successor. It is said that after Yu’s death, Qi became “so popular” among the people that Bo Yi had no choice but to abdicate in favor of him. And then Bo Yi “mysteriously” disappeared. Again, childhood trauma.

With the hereditary rule of the Yu family secured, the Xia Dynasty (夏朝) was established.

In his later years, Qi became quite corrupt. He lost sight of good governance, instead immersing himself in copious amounts of wine and women. As you can probably guess, most of his subjects were not very happy about his behavior.

Max Facts. Some historians argue that Qi was not actually popular enough to succeed his father. Instead, they claim that Qi had staged a military coup. Some ancient sources corroborate that Qi had Bo Yi executed soon after his ascension, and then suppressed a revolt at the Battle of Gan (甘). However, such theories are disputed.

So, after Qi’s death, a rival tribe kidnapped his successor, and a period of interregnum ensued. But that’s not important for the broader story. What's important that Yu and Qi founded the Xia Dynasty, and it lasted for over 400 years.

Now, let’s fast forward a bit.

Xia Dynasty (夏朝)

Founding Date: Still debated, around 2000 BC
Capital: Yangcheng (阳城)
Duration: A little over 400 years. Exact durations depend on different estimates
First Ruler: Yu the Great
Final Ruler: Jie (桀)

The two most important people from the Xia Dynasty were Yu the Great and Jie. We’ve already discussed the tale of Yu the Great. Let’s now move on to Jie.

The Fall of the Xia Dynasty

After about 400 years of rule, the Xia Dynasty was on the decline. But it still had the most powerful military in all of the Yellow River Valley. So basically, if any nation (most of whom paid tribute to the Xia king) tried anything funny, the Xia Dynasty would beat them up.

But fortunately for these nations, there was a little loophole if you didn’t like getting conquered. And it had to do with Jie’s highly advanced hormones. Here is an incredible depiction of what happened during one of the Xia Dynasty’s punitive expeditions against the Youshi nation (有施氏).

This woman was the prettiest the entire nation could find: a lady named Meixi (妹喜). Jie, dazzled by her, called off the attack on the Youshi tribe, much to the disapproval of his soldiers, who had sacrificed so much and were now deprived of plunder.

Unsurprisingly, after a few of these expeditions where he loses a bunch of men and comes home with a woman, Jie’s army grew increasingly weak and spiteful, and the Xia Dynasty’s vassals grew increasingly restive (shocker, people don’t like being attacked).

It also probably didn’t help that Jie wanted to impress Meixi so much that he kept coming up with “genius” ideas like this:

Max Facts. In Chinese, the name 妹喜 in Pinyin is “Mei” with a fourth intonation and “Xi” with a third intonation. If you changed those intonations to second and first intonation respectively, you would get 梅西, which is the Chinese for Lionel Messi. Just thought that was cool to point out.

As Jie spent more and more of his time with his beautiful wife, he spent less and less time focusing on important stuff, like making sure everyone was still alive and people weren’t planning revolts against him. Amid this quasi-power vacuum, most of the Xia Dynasty’s vassals began to coalesce around a new ruler, King Tang of Shang (商汤) (hey, that rhymes!).

Around 1400 BC, the coalition forces of Tang, after defeating a few nations still loyal to Jie, moved on the Xia capital itself. At the Battle of Mingtiao (鸣条), Tang’s army defeated the Xia Dynasty’s forces. Jie, stereotypically, was the first to flee the battlefield (Darius III, looking at you). He was eventually captured and exiled, where, without his mountain of steak and lake of wine, he could not bear to live. He died, wallowing in his misery, just a few years afterward

The corrupt acts of a single king thus ended the dynasty of Yu the Great. Tang then declared himself king, and announced the creation of the Shang Dynasty (商朝), sometimes also referred to as Yin (殷).

Our second post has come to an end. But here’s a prelude to what happens next!