Qi (Henan)

State of Qi 杞
16th century BC–445 BC
Status	Kingdom
Capital	Qi (杞)
Common languages	Old Chinese
Religion	Chinese folk religion, ancestor worship
Regierung	Monarchy, Feudalism
King of Qi
History
• Established	16th century BC
• Defeated by Chu	445 BC
Currency	Chinese coin
Preceded by Succeeded by Zhou Dynasty Qin (state) Qin Dynasty

Qǐ (Chinese: 杞) was a minor feudal state that appears in Chinese history from the beginning of the Shang Dynasty (16th c. BCE) until the beginning of the Warring States Period, circa 445 BCE.

History

The state of Qi was founded when the first king of the Shang Dynasty enfeoffed the direct descendants of the royal family of the deposed Xia Dynasty in the area that is now Qi County in Kaifeng, eastern Henan Province. The state of Qi gradually moved eastward to the area of Xintai in Shandong Province until it was finally destroyed by King Hui of Chu. One of the progeny of the Xia Dynasty, Chunwei, became the king of the Xiongnu in later Chinese history.

The state of Qi was apparently very small in scale, as it is rarely mentioned in ancient Chinese documents except to say that "its affairs are not worth mentioning." It is perhaps best known as the inspiration for the popular Chinese idiom, 杞人憂天 (Qǐ rén yōu tiān, literally, "Qi people lament heaven" or "the people of Qi worry about the sky"), which is said to refer to the fact that the people of Qi often talked anxiously about the sky falling down on their heads. The idiom is used when mocking a person's needless anxiety over an impossible, inconsequential, or inevitable matter.