Xia Ji

Her biography provided the basis for the late Ming dynasty erotic novel Zhulin yeshi, which depicts Xia Ji as a sexual vampire who supposedly achieved eternal youth and transcendency through esoteric sexual techniques designed to suck the vitality from her male partners.

[2] Liu Xiang's c. 18 BCE Lienü zhuan (Biographies of Exemplary Women) includes Xia Ji in the Niè bì zhuàn (孽嬖傳, Depraved Favorites) chapter.

Gongsun Ning [公孫寧], Yi Hangfu [儀行父], and Duke Ling of Chen [陳靈公, r. 613-599 BCE] were all engaged in illicit relations with Xia Ji.

Sometimes, as a joke, they appeared at court wearing bits of her clothing or with her intimate garments draped inside their robes.

At present you yourselves are prompting the ruler to do these things, not waiting for a private moment of leisure at court, but making a game of it in the presence of officials and commoners.

This ambiguous neixie jishu (內挾伎術, "practiced the techniques of inner cultivation") is not found in any extant earlier sources.

Wuchen admonished him, saying, "She is a person of evil or [responsible for] the killing of Yushu, the murder of Duke Ling, the execution of Xia Nan [夏南], the flight of Kong and Yi, and the destruction of the state of Chen.

Wuchen ordered his assistant to return to Chu the gifts [he had been given to present to Qi], and fled with Xia Ji to Jin.

The grandee Zifan was infuriated with him and joined with Zichong [子重] to annihilate Wuchen's clan and divide his property.

The Verse Summary says, Xia Ji was a great beauty Who annihilated states and destroyed Chen.

[10] The erotic novel Zhulin yeshi, written during the late Ming dynasty, is based on the life of Xia Ji.

[11] Olivia Milburn describes Xia Ji as a femme fatale whose "destructive beauty ... nearly caused the collapse of the state of Chen"[10] and "who was traditionally numbered among the most wicked women of Chinese antiquity.

"[12] In contrast, Michael Nylan argues that she "was a victim of powerful men and her fate was determined by her beauty and their greed.