Native Name: | 杞 |
Conventional Long Name: | State of Qi |
Common Name: | Qi |
Era: | Zhou dynasty |
Today: | China |
Government Type: | Monarchy |
Year Start: | 11th century BCE |
Year End: | 445 BCE |
Event End: | Annexed by Chu |
Qi (Old Chinese: pronounced as /
Chapter 36 of the Shiji, compiled the Han dynasty historian Sima Qian, contains an entry for the hereditary house of Qi. It states that after conquering the Shang dynasty, King Wu of Zhou sought out a descendent of the legendary Yu the Great and enfeoffed him at Qi. There follows a list of rulers with the title gong (usually rendered 'duke'), but the first four implausibly span a period from the reign of King Wu (died) to 677 BCE. Sima Qian states that Qi was destroyed in 445 BCE by King Hui of Chu, and concludes that it was "small and unimportant, its affairs were not worthy of extolling and narrating".[2]
According to Sima Zhen's commentary on the Shiji, the state of Qi was originally located in Yongqiu county, now known as Qi County, Kaifeng in modern Henan province, and moved to eastern China during the Spring and Autumn period.[3]
The state of Qi is perhaps best known from the popular Chinese idiom (Chinese: 杞人忧天/Chinese: 杞人憂天, literally 'Qi person worried about the sky') based on a story in the Liezi, in which a man of Qi often talked anxiously about the sky falling down. The idiom is used when mocking someone's groundless fears.[4]
Since Qi claimed descent from the royal house of the Xia dynasty, Confucius went there to learn about the ancient rituals of the Xia, but was disappointed: "I could discuss the rites of the Xia, but Qi does not sufficiently attest them."[5]