Mo Xi

Mo Xi liezhuan
Image of Jie and Mo Xi watching men drinking from the pool of alcohol 酒池, from the Xinkan gu Lienü zhuan 新刊古列女傳 (ca. 1825) edited by Ruan Fu 阮福 (1802-?).

Mo Xi (Chinese: 妺喜; pinyin: Mò Xǐ; Wade–Giles: Mo4Hsi3)[1] was a concubine of Jie, the last ruler of the Chinese Xia dynasty. According to tradition, Mo Xi, Da Ji (concubine of the last ruler of the Shang dynasty) and Bao Si (concubine of the last ruler of the Western Zhou dynasty) are each blamed for the fall of these respective dynasties. According to the Spring and Autumn Annals of Wu and Yue, “Xia fell because of Mo Xi; Yin (Shang) fell because of Da Ji; Zhou fell because of Bao Si” (夏亡以妹喜，殷亡以妲己，周亡以褒姒).[2] Neither Mo Xi nor the Lake of Alcohol, with which she is associated, is mentioned in the story of Jie and the fall of Xia dynasty in the Records of the Grand Historian.

  1. ^ In modern times, the first character is standardized as 妺 and pronounced as Mò in Standard Mandarin, though it is often confused with 妹 (mèi). Historically, the name has been written using various combinations of 妺, 末, or 妹 and 喜 or 嬉.
  2. ^ Wu Yue chunqiu. Taipei: Sanmin shuju. 2009. p. 309. ISBN 9789571450759.