Chinese Kings & Alcohol-Filled Pools

A History of Mankind (35)

Traditional Chinese accounts record that, around 1700 BC, Jie, the last king of the mythical Xia dynasty – or, much more likely, a strongman belonging to the Erlitou culture of Henan – became so decadent that he built an entire lake filled with an alcoholic drink, to please a concubine.

The tale is extremely suspicious, if only because it represents the …