Yuxi, the wife of Xia Wei, the last king of the Xia Dynasty, was born as beautiful as a fairy, which made Xia Wei obey her spirits and obedience, and allowed her to obey the government together. She is the first person in history to be in trouble, and the first of the ancient "four great demon concubines" (Xia Zhi Yuxi, Shang Zhi Daji, Zhou Zhi Zhaoji, Jin Zhi Li Ji), her arrival caused the Xia Dynasty to die, let's take a look at her story.
Yuxi, surnamed Xi, was born in the Youshi clan (a tribe of the Xia Dynasty), the year of birth and death is unknown, the Youshi clan is located in present-day Shandong Province, is the first beautiful woman in the country of Youshi, how beautiful is it? A poem praised: "There is Shi Yuxi, and the eyebrows are clear." Makeup Ni Caiyi, Yuen Na Fei Xi. Crystal rain and dew, human mercy. "The smile is delicate, the beautiful eyes are longing, I really see pity."
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The Xia Dynasty was founded around 2700 BC and died in 1600 BC. Xia Wei was the last king of the Xia Dynasty, a famous tyrannical king in history, on a par with the King of Shang, who did not practice internal affairs during his reign, was poor and extravagant, tyrannical and murderous, and promiscuous, with sharp class contradictions, displaced people, and miserable life. And Xia Wei was fond of killing, and attacked the city-states around the Xia Dynasty several times, extorting a large amount of property, and the surrounding city-states could only be slaughtered because of their weak strength, daring to be angry and not daring to speak, and avoided them.
Xia Wei
In the thirty-third year of Xia's reign, the Xia Dynasty sent troops to attack the small eastern state of Shi, but Shi was defeated and forced to surrender, expressing his willingness to claim the title of subordinate. However, Xia Wei took advantage of the heat to overwhelm the people, refused to let Youshi surrender, and threatened to wash Youshi in blood. When the king of the Shi clan heard that Xia Wei liked beauty, he had a plan and gave Xia Wei the most beautiful woman of the Shi clan: Yuxi to Xia Wei. After Xia Wei saw Yuxi, he was deeply attracted by her beauty and graceful figure, and he was very happy in his heart, so he retired and took Yuxi back to the dynasty.
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After Yuxi returned to the royal capital, seeing that the palace was old, her heart was unhappy, and in order to please the beauty, Xia Wei built a lot of civil engineering, spending a lot of manpower and material resources for 7 years, and built a magnificent palace for Yuxi. As for why it is called "Tilting Palace", according to some folk sayings: it may be that the productivity of the Xia Dynasty at that time was still in a relatively underground state, the construction skills of the workers were not strong, and the palace was built high, so there were some tilts, so it was named "Tilting Palace".
Yuxi is as beautiful as a flower, has an extraordinary temperament, and has endless charm on her body, which fascinates Xia Wei, obeys her words, and indulges in pleasure with beauty all day long, and since then the king has not been early, and Yuxi has been awarded the title of "Demon Queen".
Yuxi is different from other women, she has a cold personality and does not like to smile. She also had three unusual hobbies that at the time were more appropriate to call quirks. One is to like to watch people drinking and having fun together in the huge wine pool; The second is to like to listen to the sound of silk drapes tearing, and every time I hear it, I can't help laughing; The third is to like to wear men's official hats, often wearing official hats to show their bold personality. These hobbies seem nothing to us today, but they were deviant for the time.
Xia Wei doesn't care so much, doesn't the beauty like to watch everyone drink and have fun around the wine pool? In order to make Pomeranian laugh, according to historical records, Xia Wei used jade to build a very large wine pool for Yuxi, called Yao Pond. How big is Yaochi? It is large enough to accommodate 3,000 people at the same time, and large enough to take a boat ride in the pool. After the wine pool was built, Xia Wei invited many winemakers and singers from all over the country to drink freely while singing, and there were many drunk people who fell into the wine pool and drowned, and Yuxi watched the drowning and drunken people lying next to the wine pool, laughing, which was simply ridiculous.
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As a sage minister of the Xia Dynasty, Guan Longxiao really couldn't stand it, and repeatedly advised Xia Wei to care about the people and the country, and Meisei would mistakenly destroy the country and the like, and also presented a yellow map (similar to a map) to Xia Wei to explain that the country is now in a critical situation, Xia Wei was very angry after hearing this, he had long been unaccustomed to disobeying his Guan Longxiao, and took this opportunity to execute the sages who had assisted two generations of kings.
For Yuxi's second hobby of listening to silk drapery, Xia Wei did not dare to be sloppy, and ordered people to take out all the silk drapes in the treasury and tear them one by one in front of Yuxi for her. After the silk drapery in the treasury ran out, Xia Wei asked the soldiers to go to the people to loot, and one batch after another was sent to Yuxi, listening to the sound of the silk drapery tearing, Yuxi's heart bloomed. At that time, the Xia Dynasty was still in the early stage of the agricultural era, the level of silk handicrafts was low, ordinary people were still only wearing clothes made of coarse cloth, exquisite silk drapery is a rare thing, Xia Wei for the sake of the Pomeranian smile, but the people worked hard to hurt money, violent destruction of heavenly things, its dull and lecherous degree can be seen.
And Yuxi, as a woman with a bold personality, often wears an official hat and a sword on her waist, dressing herself like a man. Xia Wei didn't think so, but found these behaviors very charming, and often held Yuxi on her lap and listened to her say those big contrarian words.
Under Xia Wei's various flatteries, he finally won Yuxi's heart, but how can a powerful king be a single-minded person? After a long time, Xia Wei changed his mind.
According to the "Bamboo Book Chronicle", the Minshan tribe rebelled, Xia Wei sent troops to conquest, Minshan was defeated, in order to get rid of the crime, he followed the example of Shi and offered two beautiful women to Xia Wei. One named Wan and the other named Yan (琬琰 means beautiful jade), Xia Wei is very fond of the second daughter, and has more than Yuxi. Xia Wei forgot his old love when he had a new love, and spent all day with his second daughter You Nong My Nong, completely snubbing Yuxi. Yuxi was jealous and full of resentment, ran to Xia Wei to reason with him, and also made women cry, make trouble, and hang themselves three times. Xia Wei has a new beauty, and he has long been not the infatuated man who obeyed Yuxi's words, so he was very tired of Yuxi's behavior, and in a fit of anger, he ordered Yuxi to be confined in the area of Luoshui and ignored.
For Xia Wei's desperate love, Yuxi was very cold, her love for him gradually disappeared, but the unwillingness and resentment in her heart increased day by day, she thought to herself, how thin the ancient king is, you are desperate for me, then blame me for being unjust to you. The opportunity soon came, at this time, there was a rebellion in the surrounding Fang Kingdom, Xia Wei took two beauties to send troops to suppress the rebellion, leaving Yuxi alone in the capital, and the supervision of Yuxi was much relaxed. Yuxi took the opportunity to contact Yi Yin, the minister of the Shang Dynasty who could compete with the Xia Dynasty at that time, and revealed all the details of the Xia Dynasty to him.
After Yi Yin received the information, he felt that this was a good time to attack, so he asked Shang Tang to immediately send troops to attack the Xia Dynasty. SenseTime agreed to send someone to contact other countries to start a joint incident. Xia Wei was brutal and unscrupulous, and the world suffered for a long time, and everyone had the intention of resisting, so Shang Tang responded and soon gathered an army to attack the Xia Dynasty, and all the way was like a broken bamboo, and in a short time, he captured the Xia Dynasty in one fell swoop. And a passage in "Chinese": "In the past, Xia had a shi, and there were benefactors who used to be feminine, and the concubine was favored, so she died in Xia compared with Yi Yin" also confirms that Yuxi and Yi Yin conspired to bring about the demise of the Xia Dynasty.
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Xia Wei was defeated by Shang Tang in the Battle of Mingtiao (in present-day Xia County, Shanxi) and exiled to the mountains of Nanchao (present-day Shou County, Anhui), where the Xia Dynasty, which had existed for 471 years, finally collapsed.
It is said that after the fall of the Xia Dynasty, Yuxi offered to exile with Xia Wei, perhaps because Yuxi could not really let go of Xia Wei in her heart, or maybe Shang Tang did not dare to keep Yuxi by her side, fearing that she would also be seduced by Xia Wei and lead to the demise of the country and exile her with Xia Wei. According to the "Bamboo Book Chronicle", Xia Wei died on Nanchao Mountain 20 years after the founding of the Shang Dynasty. The Xia Dynasty was destroyed, and the only one who remained with Xia Wei was Yuxi, Xia Wei once liked the new and disliked the old and abandoned Yuxi, and Yuxi also betrayed Xia Wei, in the 20 years of getting along in Nanchao Mountain, I don't know if the grudge between them can be written off from now on? But no matter what, let the love and hate between Yuxi and Xia Wei disappear into the smoke of history.
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Bibliography:
"Chinese" "Bamboo Book Chronicle" "The Legend of Lienu"