Is “He created a pond of wine and a forest of meat, and used cruel punishments to oppress his subjects.” true?
based on fact
Later texts such as Hanfeizi attribute the pond of wine and forest of meat to Xia Jie, but the Records of the Grand Historian later transferred this to Di Xin (King Zhou of Shang). In official histories, Jie's tyranny mainly involved harming loyal ministers and heavy taxation.
Xia Jie
In official histories, he is the last tyrant of the Xia dynasty, while in novels he often serves as a typical example of a fatuous ruler who lost his kingdom.