Chinese Æsop:

The Xia Sovereign Qi was the son of Yu the Great, his mother was a girl of Muddy Mountain who later metamorphosed into a stone out of fright when Yu transformed himself into a bear, Yu demanded his son, and Qi was born from the stone’s north side when it opened up. Yu name him Qi, means “to open up.” Qi was the second sovereign of the Xia dynasty, he stole the music from heaven and brought the divine music and dance to humankind. According the Guildways to the Mountain and Seas: the Xia Sovereign Qi danced “The Nine Dai Dances” on the Plain of the Grand Music. He rode on two dragons, and the clouds formed a canopy for him three layers high. In his left hand he held a feathered pennant, in his right, a jade ring, and he wore a jade semicircle from his belt. The utilitarian philosopher Mo Di said, Qi was a decadent ruler who indulged himself in entertainment and lost heaven’s favor. In the “Questions of Heaven” in the Songs of Chu, the poet Qu Yuan wrote: Qi supplanted his father’s c...

Xia Jie riding on men (Xia Jie playing in the Wine Lake) The last King of Xia Dynasty was Jie Gui, who was a tyrant. His greatest extravagance was to build a lake filled with wine on which he and his court floated about. The retaining dikes made of dregs were so high that they could be seen ten li away. Three thousand men could drink from the lake, lapping up the wine like so many cattle. His ministers, one after another, cautioned him against such display, but he refused to listen. Worthy ministers who remonstrated with him were put to death or driven from the court. Jie would heed only evil men who brought confusion to the court. Warned by his minister Yi Yin that the Mandate of Heaven was about to be withdrawn, Jie clapped his hands and laughed uproariously, exclaming:"So you too warn of evil omens! My possession of the empire is like the sun being in the sky. Can the sun be destroyed? When the sun perishes, then I too shall be destroyed!" Yi Yin was driven out o...