page_title: Boyi and Shuqi
section_title: Biography
hierarchical_section_title: Boyi and Shuqi / Biography
caption_attribution_description: English: Battle of Muye, the battle during which Zhou overthrew Shang dynasty.
context_page_description: Boyi or Bo Yi and his brother Shuqi or Shu Qi were two brothers who lived in China at the time of the transition between the Shang dynasty and the Zhou dynasty. They are still remembered in Chinese literary culture for their personal and moral virtue, loyalty, and pacifist idealism. Sometimes they are referred to together just as "Boyi", after the elder brother. They were natives of the state of Guzhu, a vassal state of the Shang dynasty. Boyi and Shuqi represent some paradoxes in ethics: Boyi refused to take over rule of his father's kingdom because he felt his father really preferred his younger brother and going against his father's wishes would not be in accord with filial piety to go against his father. Shuqi refused the rule because it would be unfilial to allow his older brother to be bypassed. Then, after the overthrow of the dynasty to which they were loyal, facing the dilemma of disloyally eating the food of the new dynasty or remaining loyal in spirit to the former dynasty, the two were left only with starvation.
context_section_description: Boyi and Shuqi, together with a third brother Yà Píng (亞憑/亚凭), were the sons of Ya Wei (亞微/亚微), the Ruling Lord of the Guzhu State, also sometimes referred to in English language sources as Lonely Bamboo kingdom. Traditionally, the succession to the rulership would have gone to the elder son, namely Boyi; but, when Shuqi was preferred to succeed him as ruler, rather than engaging in conflict or disharmonious relationships, together they fled to the Zhou territory; which, at the time was actively encouraging immigration, particularly of skilled and talented persons.
  The moral sensitivities of Boyi and Shuqi were such that they would not abide by the violence and horror then rampant in Shang territory due to the misrule of emperor Di Xin. At first, the two brothers were welcomed by the Zhou. However, the ruler of the Zhou, Wen, died and his son Ji Fa, later known as king Wu, upon succeeding him as ruler, immediately proceeded to marshal his forces and lead them to conquer Shang: the brothers attempted to change the course of history by pulling on the chariot reins of the ruler, Wu, remonstrating with him for his lack of filial piety, both because rather than sufficiently mourning his recently deceased father he was going off to war and also that he was betraying his sacred allegiance to his sovereign lord, Di Xin, the ruler of the Shang. Wu's outraged guards would have killed the brothers, except for the intervention of general Jiang Taigong, who recognized the sincerity of their moral convictions. But, when instead of heeding their protests, the army continued on its way to eventual victory over the Shang, in the extremely violent slaughter known as the Battle of Muye.
  Boyi and Shuqi made their protest widely known through their refusal to eat the produce of Zhou, (the traditional "Five Grains"), saying, "King Wu, as a minister who assassinated his king, is an disloyal and unrighteous man. We cannot work as ministers for an emperor lacking in loyalty, righteousness, and virtue. We are ashamed to accepted an emolument from him." They retired to the wilderness of Shouyang Mountain (首陽山), in modern Yongji, Shanxi, also called "West Mountain", and lived on fiddlehead ferns, until they were reminded that these plants too now belonged to Zhou, at which point they starved themselves to death. According to a version, which appears in the Heavenly Questions, the brothers were eventually warned not to eat the ferns by a maiden (or other unidentified woman), after which a white deer miraculously appeared, suckling them, nurturing them with her milk, and thus preventing immediate starvation; however, all known versions of the story end with the demise of Boyi and Shuqi, by starvation.
caption: Battle of Muye
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