Who is Xia?

Xia was born in Zhang Cun Store, Zhili, Ming Dynasty (now Zhang Cun Town, Lixin County, Bozhou City), and his date of birth and death is unknown. In the 11th year of Wanli in Ming Dynasty (1583), he was a scholar.

Chinese name: Xia

Alias: Nothing.

Nationality: China.

Ethnic group: Han nationality

Place of Birth: Zhang Cun Branch, Bozhou, Zhili.

Date of birth: Ming Dynasty

Occupation: monitoring imperial history

Major achievements: river management

Masterpiece: Comment on Bozhou Peony

Xia was born in Zhang Cun, Zhili, Ming Dynasty (now Zhang Cun Town, Lixin County, Bozhou), and his date of birth and death is unknown. In the 11th year of Wanli in Ming Dynasty (1583), he was a scholar. In the 12th year of Wanli in Ming Dynasty (1584), he was appointed as Hejian county magistrate. After taking office, he visited people's feelings, built dikes and bridges, built roads and dug ditches, and the people of the county loved him very much. Later, with outstanding achievements, he was promoted to supervise the empire. In the 23rd year of Wanli (1595), Huanghuai flooded, and the downstream Siling (now Qingjiang City, Jiangsu Province) was seriously flooded. Hejian County Records in the Qing Dynasty, in the Official Achievements of Past Dynasties, rated him as "loving his post and being dedicated, and everyone praised his virtue". He was an honest official, not afraid of powerful people, and when he was in charge of supervising the empire, he risked being beheaded and denounced the theory of Feng Shui. He suggested that Zhu Yijun, the emperor at that time, must blow up a dam to open a canal for drainage, so as to reduce water damage, thus flooding Zhu Yuanzhang's ancestral grave. This matter has been passed down as a much-told story and spread widely. At this point, the Huaihe River water can flow downstream from the clear mouth. Later, I didn't know what was involved and what was the charge. I returned to my hometown and refused to be an official again. Xia's comments on Bozhou peony in Wanli period put forward the seed mutation theory of "different varieties, sudden change of seeds", which was 300 years earlier than the "mutation" theory of Dutch botanist De Fries. He is an outstanding representative of biological evolution thought in the early stage of modern science and a pioneer of modern mutation theory.