Q 01/05

What did the last Xia king reportedly fill a lake with, big enough to float boats?

A) Milk

B) Wine

C) Honey

D) Mercury

Answer · why

B) Wine

Wine filled the lake, and legend says three thousand men drank from it at the beat of a drum. Many reportedly fell in drunk and drowned.

Q 02/05

What did Yu the Great reportedly refuse to do three times during his thirteen years fighting floods?

A) Accept the throne

B) Leave the riverbank

C) Enter his own home

D) Rest before nightfall

Answer · why

C) Enter his own home

Yu passed his door but would not enter his own home, even when he heard his wife was in labour. In one telling, the son he had never met was more than...

Q 03/05

Which ruling house, the first to leave written records in China, traditionally overthrew the Xia?

A) Western Zhou dynasty

B) Qin dynasty

C) Shang dynasty

D) Han dynasty

Answer · why

C) Shang dynasty

The Shang dynasty followed the Xia in traditional history and is the earliest firmly supported by archaeological evidence. Some histories of China the...

Q 04/05

Which mythical creatures was the Xia king Kong Jia reportedly given, hiring keepers to raise them?

A) Dragons

B) Phoenixes

C) Qilin

D) Nine-tailed foxes

Answer · why

A) Dragons

Dragons, a pair of them, were said to be a divine gift, but one died in its keeper's care. The keeper served it to the king as a meal, then fled when ...

Q 05/05

Yu the Great won fame taming the floods of which waterway, the second-longest in China?

A) Yangtze River

B) Pearl River

C) Mekong River

D) Yellow River

Answer · why

D) Yellow River

The Yellow River carries so much fine silt that its bed keeps rising, which made its floods a constant threat. That mix of gift and menace earned it t...