The History of China - #4 - Xia 2: Revenge of the Xia!

Episode Date: November 29, 2013

This time, we take an in depth look into Shao Kang, the prince born in hiding who would rise from his dynasty's ashes to seek revenge against the Usurper-General Han Zhuo who had ruthlessly pursued him. Through a combination of skill, luck, and patience, Shao Kang will cobble together a force able to meet Han Zhuo's armies in battle. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Hello, and welcome to the History of China. Episode 4, Revenge of the Xia. Before we start in today, I feel compelled to explain to those of you who haven't tuned in since last week the sudden change in intro. Suffice it to say that a month ago, when I began this project, I was making it for, at most, a small circle of interested parties. So imagine my surprise when, within a week, it blew up to more than 3,000 subscribers. Wow. Thank you. This increased exposure has blown me away, and has also blown me through two podcast hosting sites on my way to the history of China's current home on SoundCloud. They helpfully informed me that the music I was using was licensed,

and neither wanting to pay a royalty nor get sued for not paying it, I opted to find a different theme. So I was all set to apply this new theme to my old recordings of Episodes 1 and 2, but I agreed with those of you who commented on the poor sound quality, and I just couldn't bring myself to re-upload such an inferior product, given that I now have a mic of reasonable quality. Thus, I have since re-recorded episodes 1 and 2, along with streamlining them a bit. And while they're by no means perfect, I hope any of you who care to give them a re-listen

will agree that it's a vast improvement in audio quality, at least, if perhaps not narrative. And to those of you who did not start listening until after this revamp, don't worry, you really didn't miss anything other than a different theme and what sounded like a small jet engine idling behind me. Last time, we went over the decline and exile of the Xia Dynasty, leaving off with their seeming annihilation in 2047 BCE at the hands of the usurper Han Zhuo and his two sons Han Jiao and Han Yi. The one little spot of light in this tale of woe was that Empress Ji had escaped through a hole in the city wall as her people were being massacred, and found refuge in her father's city of Youren. Inside her, she carried the baby eventually known as Shao Kang.

Today, we'll cover his life and struggle to avenge his humiliated and defeated family. This legendary tale shares many aspects with revenge stories throughout time. Shao Kang is well known as the Chinese Hamlet, though this is a bit of a misnomer because our tale today is no tragedy. Likewise, Shao Kang's tale bears many similarities to the Greek story of Orestes. But again, we will today be skipping over the subsequent God-induced madness wrought on the tragic Greek hero. Such parallels really aren't all that surprising. After all, there are few emotions so ancient and quintessentially human as the drive for revenge.

Xiao Kang was surnamed Si, and was born in either late 2047 or 2046 BCE, within a year of his father's execution at Shangqiu. Through the combination of his grandfather hiding their presence within his township, and Han Zhuo assuming his sons had successfully wiped out the Xia line for good, the boy was able to grow up in Yoren in relative safety. Nevertheless, from an early age, his mother and grandfather instructed him on his lineage and birthright, and began teaching the skills he would need to avenge his slaughtered family and retake his rightful place as the sovereign of the Xia kingdom. To this end, he was instructed in the disciplines of history, literature, tactics, administration, and the warring arts, which should not be confused with the much later Art of War by Sun Tzu. That won't be written for another 1500 years. Young Shaokang took to these lessons and proved himself a diligent and capable student while embracing his path towards vengeance. All in all, the boy was hidden well, and so he was able to continue his tutelage for more than 15 years. Word of a Xia prince yet alive, however, would have been extremely valuable information. And so, word did eventually leak out of Youren, to the capital Anyi, where it reached

the ears of a very distraught General Han Zhuo. Reports of the Xia's extermination, it would seem, had been greatly exaggerated. Han Zhuo summoned his two sons, the two who had returned insisting they had put every last member of the Xia family to the sword, and we can only imagine gave them one heck of a talking to about what assuming makes out of you and me. Thoroughly castigated, the brothers were dispatched once again at the head of a column, with a directive to finish the job already. It has never been easy to mobilize a military force and keep it secret. And this instance was no different. Word reached Yorun that an army was mobilizing to dispatch of the young prince Shao Kang. Yorun had been a useful

hiding place, but had no military force to speak of, certainly none that would be able to stand against an imperial army. As a point of defense, it was untenable, and so young Shaokang once again fled, this time to the north. Word of the Xia heir's survival and flight had reached other corners of the empire. Along the northern border, a neighboring tribal king saw a chance to, if he played his cards right, elevate his position and prestige tremendously. The rule of Han Zhuo, while not the hedonistic farce that Hou Yi had been, had devolved into tyranny and oppression.

He had increased taxation to suffocating levels, forcing many from their lands when they found themselves unable to pay. And this northern vassal king, while still able to afford the ridiculous levies demanded by An Yi, was none too happy about this state of affairs. In Xiaokang then, he saw the possibility of killing two birds with one stone. If the Xia could be restored, the taxation policies would likely be far more favorable, and by helping him do it, the northern king would have an emperor in his debt. To that end, this king in the north welcomed the fleeing Shao Kang with open arms and

the promise of protection. But that was not all, not by half. To solidify their friendship, the king offered his daughter to Shaokong for marriage, along with granting him a 100 square li, which is roughly 25 square miles, of choice farmland as his own country, a new Xia kingdom and base of operations. Now this does sound rather bizarre. Kings don't often go around gifting pieces of their territory away willy-nilly. But in the 3rd millennium BCE, this kind of policy was actually pretty normal. Markedly unlike today, China was largely uninhabited wilderness, only occasionally dotted with population centers, and the surrounding area cleared for farming. The lands then claimed by kings and emperors at this point

vastly exceeded what they could actually hope to control, much less utilize. An effective comparison is actually the Louisiana Purchase in many respects. The solution was land grants, which also doubled as an answer to the question, what do I do with all these extra sons of mine? The first son, of course, would get the primary estate and its holdings to continue their building and improvement.

But whereas Europe's eventual feudal system skewed toward shunting any younger sons into the clergy, the gentry of these first three Chinese dynasties would grant their other sons vast tracts of unpopulated wilderness as their own fiefdoms. In a kind of early Chinese Manifest Destiny, these lords and princes would expand the territory of the entire empire through founding their own population centers. This was done by attracting migrant populations with the prospects of property, opportunity, more favorable policies, or perhaps, as in Shao Kang's case, a degree of amnesty from would-be persecutors.

Under this system, it was not unheard of for highly successful holdings to develop into autonomous city-states, and even newly minted kingdoms independent from their parent state, though typically still under the umbrella of the larger empire. A notable example of this would happen later on in the Zhou Dynasty. A horse breeder for the Zhou king was rewarded for his lifetime of loyal service with one such land grant. With diligence and time, this horse breeder's estate would develop into the Kingdom of Qin, which would then go on to conquer the rest of China and found the Qin Dynasty in 221 BCE. But back here, circa 2030 BCE, Shaokong's new Xia Kingdom offered the young ruler the chance to practice the skills his studies had not been able to impart, the arts of statecraft.

As he built the small kingdom's population and drew up plans for eventual reconquest of the larger Xia empire, his city-state acted as a critical sandbox to develop his leadership and administrative skills. Now certainly, a kingdom of his own to govern, even a tiny one, was far more than anything Shao Kong had any reason to hope for. He was, after all, a fugitive on the run. But vital as this change in fortune was, it was not nearly enough to even think of launching a successful strike against Han Zhuo and reclaiming his birthright. Under normal circumstances, it could take decades,

even generations, to build an area's population up to that level. Fortunately for the ever-lucky Shao Kang, providence would smile on him yet again. Firstly, a former and exceedingly loyal minister to the Xia had been long awaiting this moment. He had carried a torch for his former patrons for decades, holding out the hope that somehow an heir to the Xia might have survived Han Zhuo's extermination campaign.

To that end, he had resolved to be ready when the time came, and had been amassing a vast fortune, along with a trove of armaments and a secret army of loyalists longing to avenge the Xia and depose the usurper. When word reached them that Shao Kang had yet survived and had set up a stronghold in the north, they jubilantly marched to pledge their lives and loyalty once more to the rightful Shao King. Hi everyone, this is Scott. If you want to learn about the world's oldest civilizations, find out how they were rediscovered, follow the story of Mark Antony and Cleopatra's descendants over ten generations, or take a deep dive into the Iron Age or the Hellenistic era,

then check out the Ancient World Podcast. Available on all podcasting platforms, or go to ancientworldpodcast.com. That's the Ancient World Podcast. The second boon for Shao Kang came about directly from capitalizing on Han Zhuo's administrative blundering. As mentioned previously, the general's policies of taxation had driven countless individuals and lords from their lands and homes. Now, with a trained and equipped army backing him, Shao Kang felt confident enough

to once again raise the long-disused banner of the Xia and unleash a propaganda blitz on the struggling south. Word went out that the line of Xia kings yet survived and held the territory to the north. This propaganda preached of Shao Kong's benevolence to all and welcomed any loyal citizens to his side. Already displaced and being crushed by poverty, droves upon droves flooded into this new kingdom to the north. The information campaign drew comparisons between King Shao Kong and Emperor Yu the Great's unwavering goodwill toward his people. And before long, the northern Xia kingdom

was overflowing with new arrivals. Of course, announcing to all who would listen of his whereabouts was kind of a double-edged sword. Shao Kong was taking a calculated gamble that the propaganda blitz would bolster his forces faster than Han Zhuo could mobilize a response. Lo and behold, word did eventually trickle down to An Yi and the usurper general's aging ears.

One can only imagine his reaction in learning that once again, his sons had failed in their job. Their one job. Further, the news of Xiaokong's infuriating refusal to just die carried with it the information that the prince now commanded a kingdom and an army fit to rival Hanzhuo's own. He could not but have felt a creeping fear in his bones. Not only would this thorn in his side not just disappear, but he was actually gaining strength and it was clearly aimed directly at Han Zhuo. It should be mentioned that by this time, more than 80 years had passed since the Xia kings had been thrown into exile.

Han Zhuo, you'll recall, had been Hui's general before deposing and executing him, and so by this point was almost certainly well beyond 100 years old. Clearly believing in the axiom that the third time's the charm, Han Zhuo once more dispatched his two sons to complete the task they had now twice failed. This time, though, playtime was over. Han Jiao and Han Yi were dispatched at the head of the largest force they could muster, with the objective of utterly crushing this growing problem. But by this time, circumstances had shifted considerably.

No longer was a mobilized imperial army a death sentence for Shao Kang. Between his minister's secret army and the ever-swelling ranks of displaced citizens more than willing to take up arms and reclaim their homes, the northern Sha army was, at least on paper, a force to be reckoned with. Time would tell, though, whether they could truly hold up to the Han Zhou forces headed their direction. Shortly after crossing into Shao Kang's territory, the two armies met in battle. The Han brothers, having been prepared for some resistance but likely expecting to find

their foe once again evaporate at their approach, instead encountered the full might of Shaokang's fury, headed by the heir of Xia himself. Unprepared for the sheer numbers and unexpected combat discipline of their enemy, Han Jiao and Han Yi found their seasoned armies actually giving ground to the relentless assault. As one flank broke, and then the other, the sons of Han Zhuo found themselves cut off and surrounded by the Xia army and forced to surrender. These two men had relentlessly pursued Xiao Kong for literally his entire life. At their hands, his father had been slain, as well as his mother and grandfather. Suffice it to say, with the tables now turned, the Prince of Xia was not

feeling particularly forgiving. He had the two brothers executed then and there on the field of battle. Victorious, Xiao Kong swept south, encountering little if any resistance. Han Zhuo had sent everything he had at the prince, and now broken and routed, there was no force left which could put up much of a fight. Before long, the army of Xiao Kang positioned itself at the gates of An Yi, prepared to lay siege to the capital and end the usurper general's reign once and for all. But as Han Zhuo prepared the defenses to his city, the unexpected occurred. The citizens themselves threw open the gates of the city to welcome the prince's army. Thus, the city was taken. Han Zhuo had no other option but to flee to the inner citadel and bar the door. But armyless, friendless, sunless, and now cityless,

he realized it was just a matter of time before the invading army kicked down the door and dragged him out to a public execution. The potential for that embarrassment was too much for a man of Han Jue's pride, and he took his own life as the army of Shaokong approached. Thus, in 2007 BCE, Shaokong entered his ancestral city for the first time in his life as victor, liberator, and the renewed king of Xia. When the gates had been flung open, he had specifically ordered his army to spare the populace and their possessions. There would be no pillaging, looting, or murders in the capital. When the death of Han Zhuo had been confirmed, Xiaokong's first duty was to pay homage to his ancestors in a lavish ceremony. This practice of ancestor veneration would catch on, ultimately

supplanting the prior shamanism of the Yellow River tribes. The highly ritualized ceremonies essentially bound the peoples of a kingdom together as a unified clan, with the royal family, of course, at its head. In addition to the typical duties of state, one of the royal family's most sacred charges was to protect and venerate the bones of the clan ancestors and offer them sacrifices,

using such vessels as the jiu ding. More than a simple religious ceremony, the ability to properly officiate a service was a status symbol of great importance. So much so, that a kingdom that found itself unable to afford the steep cost was often considered so weak as to justify their conquest by a neighboring tribal king. That's right, not properly honoring one's ancestors was actually thought of as a valid casus belli. Thus, in order to reclaim his birthright in earnest, Xiao Kang was actually required to pay homage to his ancestors.

To do less would have painted himself as illegitimate. The now emperor in truth, as well as name, was around 40 years old at the time of his reconquest of the Xia Empire. With the usurper defeated and his ancestral lands restored, Xia's vassal states flocked to renew their loyalty and commitment to their legitimate ruler. The remainder of his rule is largely remembered

as being an age of peace and prosperity. In the second year of his reign, he received an envoy from the Fang people, a barbarian tribe from the outskirts of the empire. The following year, he reallocated the lands to his loyal vassals in such a manner that their vassalship could be inherited by their sons, thus increasing the stability of Shaokang's administrative system. Of note, one of these newly vassalized areas would come to be ruled by the Zhou tribe, which you may recall from episode 2 had been founded some 400 years earlier by the youngest son of Emperor Ku, Hou Ji.

The Zhou clan will come into power in its own right some 900 years from now, with the establishment of the Zhou dynasty in 1046 BCE. Not everything, however, was in great condition upon the return of the Xia to power. Between the hedonistic bumbling of Zhang Han, the even more hedonistic bumbling of Hou Yi, and the late Han Zhuo's preoccupation with finding and destroying his rivals to power, the river and irrigation systems of the empire had become dangerously close to once again flooding the Yellow River Valley. Xiaokong appointed a subordinate to redredge the rivers and clear the flow outlets

to keep the river systems under control, thus staving off another catastrophe in the making. Though An Yi had been the capital of the Xia Empire since its establishment as such by Yu, and we're going to just sort of forget about the farcical rechristening of Shangqiu by Xiang, by his 18th year of rule, he decided to move his capital eastward to the city of Yuan. Finally, after 21 or 22 years of rule, having restored the corrupted and exiled Xia Dynasty to their former power and glory, Emperor Shao Kang died in 1985 BCE, leaving the throne to his son, Prince Zhu. Next time, we're going to hit the warp drive button, as the Xia Dynasty, for now riding high, will slip once more into malaise, corruption, and eventual tyranny. All of this toward the last of the Xia emperors, Die, the cruel.

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