7th century BC),[1] also known as Jie Zitui, was an ancient aristocrat who served the Jin prince Chong'er during the Spring and Autumn period of Chinese history.

[15][16] In 655 BC, Jie followed Chong'er into exile[10] among the Di tribes north of the Chinese[17] when the Rong beauty Li Ji successfully plotted against the sons of the other wives of the Duke of Jin.

The prince declined; his younger brother Yiwu (posthumously the "Hui Duke") accepted and then—after a perilous period of imprisonment in Qin—sent assassins after Chong'er in 646 BC.

[1] The 4th-century-BC commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals credited to Zuo Qiuming contains the earliest surviving record of Jie's story,[6] in a section now placed beside Confucius's entry on Duke Yiwu's death in 637 BC.

In it, a Thucydidean dialogue between Jie and his mother explains how he finds the duke's other retainers to be thieves for taking credit and receiving rewards when Heaven itself was responsible for Chong'er's restoration.

[19] The annals compiled c. 239 BC under Qin's chancellor Lü Buwei opine that Duke Chong'er never became a king because he proved less capable in success than he had been in adversity.

[23] (In fact, the four-character lines and rhyming dialogue in Jie's conversations with his mother suggests it draws on an earlier, now-lost poetic treatment of the life of Chong'er.

)[24] Sima specifies that Jie hid himself out of disgust at what he took as Hu Yan's insincere and overdramatic retirement on the journey from Qin to Jin, which Chong'er declined with similar overstatement.

[31] Han Fei's collected works reference the story—dramatizing Jie's selflessness and loyalty—whereby he fed Chong'er with soup made from flesh carved from his own body because he was unable to bear his lord's thirst or hunger.

[45] When the duke was unable to find his old friend's hermitage amid the endless trees and ridges,[43] his advisors suggested lighting a forest fire on one side[41] of Mt Mian to drive him out[46] since his duty to his mother would overcome his pride.

[1][42][46][44][47] Jie is listed as the author of several poems or songs, although since they were composed in a dialect of Old Chinese their lines do not necessarily rhyme or scan correctly in present-day Mandarin.

[4] The oldest sources for Jie's story state that Duke Chong'er set apart the income from the fields of Mianshang near Jiexiu[48][49] to endow sacrifices in his honor.

[19] By the Eastern Han (1st & 2nd centuries), he was listed among the Taoist immortals[11] and had a temple in Taiyuan[50][51] and another at Mt Mian[52] at his tomb on Lord Jie Ridge.

[53][54] During the Eastern Han, people in central and southern Shanxi avoided fire for up to a month in the middle of winter, either out of respect[55][5] for Jie or because they feared his spirit's vengeance against those who broke the taboo.

[56] At first, the most common dish was a cold form of uncooked congee or gruel;[57] later, a menu developed of items that were precooked but kept long enough that they could be eaten unheated during the festival.

[73] His legend—with adjustments—appears in Wang Mengji's 17th-century short story "Jie Zhitui Sets Fire to His Jealous Wife",[74] which uses irony and absurdities to comment on feminine jealousy and the difficulty of matching results to intentions.

[78] Holzman acknowledges that Jie's behavior "earned him immortality as a loyal official who chose obscure retirement rather than sacrifice his principles", but still personally finds it "rather strange... and rather petulant".

[6] A 2015 article in the Shanghai Daily admits that, "judged in light of modern notion[s]", Jie "would probably be suffering from personality disorders that lead to him to perceive and understand the world in ways that are 'inflexible'".

Being "one of the most celebrated models of integrity of the old school", however, Jie is not faulted for his actions but listed as "a mentally sound person who live[d] in an 'unhealthy society'" and did not "fit" it.