Qi establishes the Xia Dynasty 启建夏朝 | Chinese History - The Xia Dynasty E03

Well, in the past few episodes, we covered how Yu, through his political maneuvering and his military conquests and achievements, set the stage and built the foundations of transitioning the early tribal societies, or rather the later-day tribal societies, into a feudal state, into a unified kingdom. And of course, that took a long time. It practically took Yu his entire lifetime to amass enough political capital and build his own power base. And today, in today's story and video, we would see, finally, how all these tribal leaders and regional chiefs were being dragged, kicking and screaming, into a new normal, into, to them, what would be the new world order for their period of time. So, without much further ado, let's go! Hello, and welcome to the show! My name is Ah Ping Ngor, and I am the chain-smoking writer. Here, we share the myths, legends and histories of the Chinese people, from the first creator to the last imperial dynasty. More than 6,000 years of stories, one video at a time. And if you'd like to join us on this journey through time, remember to click the subscribe button and the bell icon, so you'll be updated whenever a new video drops. And if you'd like to connect with me on Patreon or other social media platforms, the links are available here and down in the description box. So, yeah, let's get on with today's story! Now, as we mentioned in previous episodes, his authority over the land was greatly enhanced after the casting of his nine giant bronze vessels and his successful campaign against the Miao people. Now, in the later days of his reign, the central court had amassed enough military might and political power to crush basically any individual tribal leader that would even dream of going against the wishes of Yu and his court. Now, Yu's power and authority was unassailable by this time, and he felt that it was time to actually further diminish the powers and autonomy of the regional tribes and the chiefs, and to bring them further under the control of the central court, more like a direct rule of the central court. To that end, Yu decided to call another grand council of the tribes, and it was to be held at Maoshan in today's Zhejiang Shaoxing. Now, the point of the council was a display of power and authority for Yu and the central court, and to further consolidate the power base and to tighten the control over these tribal chiefs, these regional leaders. Now, the leader of the Fangfeng tribe that resided near the meeting place had always been reluctant or resistant to the authority and the influence of the central court, and of course to Yu himself. He would take every opportunity that arose to show his disregard and his disdain of the central court, and what he thought about the authority. Now, this occasion was no different, of course, and he purposely arrived late to the council, and he sauntered leisurely into the meeting tent, with total disregard and disrespect to everyone, and of course, to the king, to Yu himself. I mean, this guy felt that, you know, I'm a regional chief, I am one of the big tribal chiefs of the land, and you know, I have my own pride, I have my own dignity to uphold, and you know, you might call yourself king, but what the heck are you gonna do to me? What can you do to me? He did not believe that anything would happen to him, but this impertinence and this disrespect, this blatant disrespect of his authority, greatly infuriated the king, and to everyone's surprise, and most probably most of all to the leader of the Fangfeng tribe, he actually ordered the immediate execution of him on the spot, in front of everyone, and it was carried out. This fellow was beheaded right in the meeting tent, in front of all the gathered chiefs, and this display of power really worked. It worked as intended. It worked beautifully. You know, decades ago, it would have caused an uprising, or riot, or rebellion, but this time, it worked, and throughout the course of the entire council, the entire meeting, the chiefs willingly gave up much of their autonomy and their power, their autonomous powers. They gave up a lot of these powers to the central court, and submitted to a more direct form of control, a more direct rule from the central courts. Although Yang Ge Yu had promised decades ago, that he would continue the age-old tradition of succession by merit, and abdication to capable candidates, and of course, he did name Gao Yao, and later Gao Yao's son, Bo Yi, as his successor. But in his later years, after all his accomplishments, and all his maneuvering, and his conquest, he began to have different ideas in his later years. I mean, the consolidation of all these powers and authorities in his hands, and in the hands of the central court, basically meant that he had less and less need to appease and placate the regional chiefs. His own power base, and his own military might, also ensured that he had the ability to crush any dissenting tribes, if they were to raise up against him on their own. And of course, he fought so hard to stabilize the throne, he fought so hard to consolidate the authority and power, and any person, I guess, will start to have the idea like, you know, I've worked so hard, I've fought so hard for all this, why would I want to give it all up to someone else, instead of just passing it down within the family to my own son? Now, we also know that Bo Yi, the named successor of Yu, was a highly regarded person in the realm. He had established his own reputation since the day under the reign of Shun, and although he was the son of Gao Yao, and he could very easily write on his father's reputation and coattails, he made many contributions to society in his own right. And not the least, of course, was what we mentioned, the discovery of underground water and the development of the well system. Now, when Shun wanted to expand the livable land for the people, Bo Yi also devised a system of firefellow cultivation to clear out large expenses of agricultural land for the people in relatively short times. When Yu was fighting the floods, Bo Yi, together with his father Gao Yao, were Yu's closest and most important assistants on the missions. Bo Yi even found time to make records of the various geography, the flora and the fauna of the regions that they visited in the flood fighting missions, in the flood fighting efforts. These records were later proved to be valuable, and became much of the source material for the Shan Hai Jing, or Classics of Mountains and Seas, which was written more than a thousand years later. Now, in the dealings with the Miao people before their submission, Bo Yi also displayed his foresight by reminding both Shun and Yu that forced integration through military might is definitely not enough and not sufficient. They should actually think about influencing the Miao people through education and virtues, and basically what we call today, soft power, so that the Miao people will want to integrate and assimilate into the Huaxia on their own. So, this is a guy that basically, in his own right, even without his father's reputation, would be a pretty mighty fellow, a person that is really highly respected and worthy of that respect and his reputation. Now, all of these contributions to the people and the society, made him basically a hero in the common man's eyes. His stellar reputation by this time was only second to the King, to Yu himself. That reputation and the fact that Yu actually named him as an official successor to the throne, made it very difficult for Yu to now change his mind and want to pass the throne down to his own son. If he was to do that, it would no doubt upset the leaders and upset the public, and so he has a tricky situation on his hands now. So, after much thought and much ruminating, Yu remembered that there were two important factors that ensured the smooth transition of power from Shun to himself. First, he had already built and established a reputation for his contribution in the flood fighting efforts. Secondly, when Shun named him as successor, Shun basically left the running of the realm to him, and let him build his own reputation and experience as an administrator and as a ruler. So, he felt that, maybe I can just do the same thing and try to build my son's reputation up, and give him the experience that he needs. So, what Yu did was that he passed on many of the responsibilities of running the realm, the administrative tasks and the governing of the land. He passed a lot of these responsibilities to his son Qi. While at the same time, he shrewdly limited the opportunities Bo Yi had of attaining any more accomplishments or any more achievements. Basically, he put Bo Yi into a kind of a semi-retirement while building Qi up as the great beacon of hope for the future, in the hope that the reputation of Qi would slowly outshine the memory of Bo Yi over time. Unsurprisingly, this ploy actually worked, and people actually really slowly forgot about Bo Yi and his contributions, while Qi's reputation really grew among the people. He was known as a hard-working and diligent ruler and administrator of the land. So, by the time King Yu passed away, Qi started wielding the powers of state, just like he was a legitimate successor to the throne. Most of the regional chiefs actually swore allegiance to him, and no one really opposed to Qi wielding the powers of state. Seeing how the events unfolded, Bo Yi rightfully felt that he was robbed of his right and his claim to the throne, and so he returned to his homeland in the Dong Yi tribes and raised an army to reclaim the throne by force, if he had to. The throne that he felt rightfully belonged to him. Qi, of course, was well prepared for Bo Yi's attempt to make a power grab, and by this time, he had consolidated his power base, he had years to build up his own power base, and now that many of the regional chiefs had already sworn allegiance to him, and of course, with the original military might of the central court, Bo Yi and the Dong Yi rebellion was really nothing more than a fly buzzing around, causing a nuisance, and all Qi had to do was just to swat him out of the way. So, basically, you know, Bo Yi's rebellion was crushed with hardly even a fight, if you could even call it that. And so, after the battle, and after crushing Bo Yi and that feeble rebellion thing, you know, Qi organized a feast to celebrate the victory, and it was held in today's Henan region, and during the feast, Qi openly declared the establishment of the Xia dynasty, named after his own tribe, the Xia Hou tribe, so he named the dynasty Xia, after the tribe, and he would install himself as the king and undisputed ruler of the land. Now, along with the establishment of a dynasty, and his proclamation of being the undisputed ruler over the land, along with this, there were some major changes. The ascension of Qi officially cast aside the system of leadership by consensus, where, you know, the regional leaders would have a say in, you know, nominating and electing who the next ruler, or the next confederated chief is. It was done away with. Instead, now you have the undisputed ruler, the overall king of the land, and succession was now dynastic and hereditary, which means, you know, the throne would now be passed on within the family, or at least within the clan, and the tribal hierarchy that has worked for thousands of years before this, was replaced by a unified and central government, effectively converting the entire land into a feudal state of slave owners. So, instead of being tribal chiefs, now they are nobles in the new system, in the new normal, and all of them, instead of identifying themselves as, oh, I'm from this state, I'm from this tribe, I'm from that clan, instead of that, now everyone will identify themselves as one single unified state, or kingdom. Now, of course, many of the chiefs and the leaders were, you know, reluctant, and not really keen on the idea, but what can they do? I mean, this guy just swat away a rebellion and a power grab like it was nothing, and everyone knew that the military power and the might of the central court, and the political capital that the central court wielded, was more than what anyone could, you know, even dream of overcoming. So, as much as they were not keen on the idea, they have to silently accept that change is unavoidable, and the days of whatever autonomy that they enjoyed, was effectively over. Now, although Qi was not as talented, or enjoyed as much fame as his forebears, or his father Yu, he was known, at this time, he was known as a hard-working ruler who held himself to extremely strict standards, and, you know, there were stories that say he only ate simple fare that compared poorly even to the foods that some peasants ate, and he slept in old beddings made from rough materials, and he, you know, rejects all luxury, and he would not even sleep on silks, and he abstained from all forms of music and entertainment outside of official rituals and ceremonies, and he was also known, well known, in fact, for being respectful and humble towards the elderly, and he was very nurturing of the young, and, you know, it was said that he had a good eye for talent, and he made many good appointments to positions in government. Now, all these character traits, and all this reputation that he has built up over the years, as basically his father's second-in-command, and the administrator of the land, well, let's put it this way, these are very good stories and propaganda, and we will find out, you know, how this was all just a facade in future episodes. However, at this point in time, this reputation, and these well-publicized character traits worked in his favor, and quickly endeared him to the populace, and barely a year into his reign, the people fully recognized him as the rightful king of the land, and, you know, basically no one cast any doubt or questioned his legitimacy anymore. Now, this transition from a tribal society into a slave-owning feudal system was actually an era-defining event. The massive increase in productivity under the feudal system greatly improved the standard of living, and the further specialization under the feudal system of this agricultural and craftsmanship, and craft work, it established a much higher baseline for economical growth, and thus, it provided an extremely strong foundation for the flourishing of culture and civilization. Of course, you know, once you do not really have to worry about feeding yourself, and when the next meal is going to come from, you of course have more time to think about, you know, making your life better, making things more enjoyable, and making things of a higher quality, which is an unchanging rule from thousands of years ago until today. Creativity only flourishes when society is stable, and is flourishing as well. So, this transition from a tribal system to a feudal system effectively gave a great boost to productivity and the flourishing of culture and civilization of the time. However, the thing is, yes, the Xia dynasty, although it was known for the transition between tribal to feudal, it was not really a very stable dynasty. In fact, we will find out in the next few episodes that this transition, the way that she took power, will actually plant the seeds of chaos for generations and generations down the road. And if you don't want to miss that, remember, subscribe to the channel, click on the bell icon to be updated when a new video drops. Now, I hope you enjoyed that story and the video, and if you did, please remember to smash the like, sub and bell icons, that would really help the channel out a lot. And if you'd like to connect with me, and if you have anything to say, any questions you want to ask, leave your comments in the comment section below, or you can connect with me on other social media platforms, or support the channel on Patreon through all the links in the description box as well. And I guess that's all for today, and I really, really, really hope you don't miss the next episode, and I'll see you soon.