One is the "Seven Kingdoms Rebellion" in the Western Han Dynasty. During the period of Emperor Jingdi of the Western Han Dynasty, Emperor Jingdi adopted the opinion of Prime Minister Chao Cuo, weakened the feudal fiefs of the royal family and etiquette, and brought them into the central management. Unwilling to lose his powerful power, the monarch Liu Bi colluded with six other suzerain countries, and in 154 BC, under the banner of "killing the Qing monarch in Chao Cuo", he joined forces to rebel. King Jing had to kill Chao Cuo in order to avoid the war and let the Seven Kings retreat, but the Seven Kings refused to retreat. Jingdi immediately sent Zhou Yafu to lead the troops to quell the "Seven Kingdoms Rebellion". This is the origin of "Chaos Seven".

The other is the "Eight Kings Rebellion" in the Western Jin Dynasty. In the early years of the Western Jin Dynasty, since Sima Yan established the Jin Dynasty, the royal disciples were made princes and enjoyed various privileges. After his death, Hui Di, who succeeded to the throne, was incompetent and unable to manage state affairs. Power fell into the hands of his grandfather Yang Jun .. But Sima Yan's wife was dissatisfied with Yang Jun's monopolization of power, so she planned to kill Yang Jun and asked Sima Liang, the king of Runan, to assist Hui Di.

However, Sima Liang also practiced dictatorship. Empress Jia was not at ease, so Sima Wei dismissed Sima Liang. In this way, one after another to kill, the court panic. At that time, Sima Lun, the king of Zhao who was in charge of guarding the central dynasty, took the opportunity to launch a coup, killed his family, abolished Hui Di, and then became emperor himself. Sima Lun's behavior caused strong opposition from Sima Tang, Chengdu Ying and Hejian Yu. Together, they killed Sima Lun and helped Hui Di restore the throne. Later, Sima Yu and Sima Ying killed Sima Tong. Sima Yue, king of the East China Sea, was very angry. He sent his troops into the palace and killed Sima Ying and Sima Yi in one fell swoop. He also poisoned Hui Di and established a new emperor in charge of Korea. This is the "Eight Kings Rebellion" in history.

The "Eight Kings Rebellion" lasted longer than the "Seven Kingdoms Rebellion" and brought more disasters to the people, which seriously weakened the ruling power of the Western Jin regime, so it was called "Eight Harms".

Later, people linked these two events in history and called them "a mess", which was handed down as an idiom.