But so many people objected[4] that both kings were forced to return to the title of "king" (wáng 王) and there was no Di in China until Qin Shi Huang unified China in 221 BC and gave himself the title of Huang Di, which is translated as "Emperor" in English.

King Min, like his predecessors, supported scholars in the Jixia Academy and inviting prominent visitors to talk with him.

But "all of King Min's assessments were like this [i.e. foolish], which is why his state was destroyed and his person placed in harm's way.

"[5] King Min had his critics executed, sometimes in cruel ways such as being boiled alive or cut in two at the waist;[6][7] he gradually alienated the commoners, his own royal clan, and the great ministers.

The Biographies of Exemplary Women, compiled about 18 BC by the scholar Liu Xiang, includes in its "Accomplished Speakers" section a story about the virtuous wife of King Min, "The Lump-necked Woman of Qi."

[King Min] then invaded the three Jin [kingdoms], struck terror in Qin and Chu, and set himself up with the title 'emperor.'

"[9] At the end of his reign, after King Min had angered even his own generals who were defending Qi, his capital city of Linzi was invaded and sacked in 284 BC by General Yue Yi of Yan, partly at the instigation of King Min's advisor Su Qin.

"The army of Yan entered the capital...fighting with each other over the great quantity of bronze stored in the treasury.

Even after his defeat, King Min never blamed himself; he agreed with an obsequious advisor who said, "Your majesty had the title of Sovereign of the East and in fact controlled the world.

Another account says Nao Chi "bound King Min by his joints and suspended him from a beam in the ancestral temple.

[7] However, it survived as a kingdom and was the last independent land to succumb to the unification of China proper under Qin Shi Huang in 221 BC.