Bo Yi (伯夷) | 24 Histories

Overview

The translated histories identify Bo Yi as an aristocrat, hermit, named individual, and scholar. This record brings together 25 passages from 13 chapters across 6 histories, with names, dates, relationships, offices, and events preserved as source-backed claims.

Names

Type	English	Chinese	Pinyin
Personal	Bo Yi	伯夷	Bo Yi
Personal name	Bo Yi	伯夷	Bó Yí
Alternate	Bo Yi	夷	Bo Yi
Personal name	Bo Yi	夷
Personal name	Bo Yi	伯夷	Bo Yi
Personal	Boyi	伯夷	Boyi
Personal	Boyi	夷	Yi
Personal name	Boyi	伯夷	Bó Yí
Personal name	Boyi	伯夷	Boyi
Personal name	Boyi	夷
Personal name	Boyi	伯夷
Personal name	Yi	夷	Yí
Personal name	Yi	夷
Alternate		夷

Identity

Historicity: Uncertain
Identification: Named
Sex: Male

Sex: male
Strongly inferred · beiqishu:029:s0001, hanshu:076:s0310, houhanshu:032:s0134, jinshi:127:s0049, shiji:124:s0013
Sex: male
Explicit · beiqishu:047:s0074, liangshu:014:s0245, shiji:061:s0015, shiji:084:s0155
Value: male
Strongly inferred · shiji:074:s0040

Roles

Aristocrat
Hermit
Named Individual
Scholar

Life and dates

Death

Manner: starvation · Place: Mount Shouyang / 首陽山
Explicit · shiji:061:s0034, shiji:124:s0013
Manner: starved below Shouyang / 餓於首陽之下
Explicit · hanshu:076:s0310

Attested activity

Source Date: Text: 伯夷丑周，餓死首陽山 · Qualitative: legendary antiquity
Explicit · shiji:124:s0013
Source Date: Text: 逸民 · Qualitative: legendary antiquity
Explicit · jinshi:127:s0049
Qualitative: legendary antiquity
Explicit · beiqishu:029:s0135, houhanshu:032:s0134, liangshu:031:s0139, shiji:061:s0009, shiji:061:s0011, shiji:061:s0015, shiji:061:s0021, shiji:061:s0028, shiji:061:s0034, shiji:061:s0037, shiji:061:s0058, shiji:084:s0155, shiji:099:s0014
Qualitative: legendary antiquity
Explicit event contextual date · beiqishu:047:s0074
Source Date: Text: 伯夷餓不食周粟 · Western Interval: Start: BC 1050 · End: BC 1040
Explicit event contextual date · shiji:074:s0040
Source Date: Text: 量交 · Western Year: c. BC 1046
Explicit event contextual date · liangshu:014:s0245

Family

Immediate source-linked family. Drag to pan, scroll or pinch to zoom, and select a person to open their record.

Sibling of Middle son of the Lord of Guzhu (孤竹君之中子)
Kinship Term: brothers / 兄弟 · Shared Parentage: full · Subject Relative Age: elder · Subject Birth Order: 1 · Object Birth Order: 2
Kinship Term: brothers / 兄弟 · Shared Parentage: full · Subject Relative Age: younger · Subject Birth Order: 2 · Object Birth Order: 1
Sibling of Shu Qi (叔齊)
Kinship Term: brothers / 兄弟 · Shared Parentage: full · Subject Relative Age: elder · Subject Birth Order: 1 · Object Birth Order: 3
Kinship Term: brothers / 兄弟 · Shared Parentage: uncertain
Kinship Term: brothers / 兄弟 · Shared Parentage: full · Subject Relative Age: younger · Subject Birth Order: 3 · Object Birth Order: 1
Child of Lord of Guzhu (孤竹君)
Kinship Term: son / 子 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: son · Object Role: father · Subject Birth Order: 1 · Line: paternal
Kinship Term: father / 父 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: father · Object Role: son · Object Birth Order: 1 · Line: paternal

Career and standing

Status: hermit · Action: entered
Explicit · shiji:061:s0028

Places and affiliations

Label: Guzhu / 孤竹 · Relation: born-to
Explicit · shiji:061:s0015
Label: Zhou / 周 · Relation: refused-to-acknowledge
Explicit · shiji:061:s0028
Place: Shouyang / 首陽 · Unresolved: true
Explicit · hanshu:117:s0262
Place: Mount Shouyang / 首陽山 · Relation: hid-at
Explicit · shiji:061:s0028, shiji:061:s0034

Works and attributed material

Work: Song of Bo Yi and Shu Qi / 采薇歌 · Relation: author
Explicit · shiji:061:s0029, shiji:061:s0030, shiji:061:s0031, shiji:061:s0032, shiji:061:s0033
Kind: poem · Role: author · Quoted: true
Explicit · shiji:061:s0030, shiji:061:s0031, shiji:061:s0032, shiji:061:s0033
Kind: remonstrance · Role: speaker · Other Person Id: King Wu of Zhou (武王) · Quoted: true
Explicit · shiji:061:s0023, shiji:061:s0024
Kind: speech · Role: speaker · Quoted: true
Explicit · shiji:061:s0017

Events and relationships

Kind: political · Role: heir-refuser · Action: fled-rather-than-succeed · Other Person Id: Shu Qi (叔齊)
Explicit · shiji:061:s0016, shiji:061:s0017, shiji:061:s0018
Kind: political · Role: remonstrator · Action: grasped-bridle-and-remonstrated · Other Person Id: King Wu of Zhou (武王)
Explicit · shiji:061:s0023, shiji:061:s0024
Kind: personal · Role: refuser · Action: refused-to-eat-Zhou-grain-and-lived-on-ferns · Other Person Id: King Wu of Zhou (武王)
Explicit · shiji:061:s0028
Kind: refusal · Role: subject · Action: starved rather than eat Zhou grain
Explicit · shiji:074:s0040
Kind: travel · Role: migrant · Action: went-to-attach-to · Other Person Id: King Wen of Zhou (周文王)
Explicit · shiji:061:s0021, shiji:061:s0022
Type: associated-with · Person Id: Shu Qi (叔齊)
Explicit · hanshu:076:s0310

Assessments and attributes

Assessment: good man who accumulated benevolence and pure conduct · Provenance: Mode: historian-judgment · Speaker Person Id: Sima Qian (太史公)
Explicit · shiji:061:s0037, shiji:061:s0038
Assessment: praised as recluse by Confucius · Provenance: Mode: named-source-report · Speaker Person Id: Confucius (孔子)
Explicit · jinshi:127:s0049
Assessment: worthy; name made more illustrious through the Master · Other Person Id: Confucius (孔子) · Provenance: Mode: historian-judgment · Speaker Person Id: Sima Qian (太史公)
Explicit · shiji:061:s0058

Source notes

Historicity: legendary
Explicit · beiqishu:029:s0135, shiji:061:s0015, shiji:099:s0015

References in the histories

Open any source group to read the Chinese and English passage in context.

Book of Northern Qi, Chapter 29Volume 29 Biographies 21: Li Hun; Zi Zhan; Hun Dihui; Zuzi Gongxu; Li Yu; Di Jin; Zu Dixiao; Zheng Shuzu; Zi Yuande · 1 passage

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時穆子容為巡省使，嘆曰：「古人有言：『聞伯夷之風，貪夫廉，懦夫有立。』 At the time Mu Zirong was touring inspector; he sighed and said, "The ancients said: 'Hear the wind of Bo Yi, and the greedy grow honest; the timid stand firm.'

Book of Northern Qi, Chapter 47Volume 47 Biographies 39: Cruel Officials · 1 passage

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對捍使者尚得死坐，況遊道吐不臣之言，犯慢上之罪，口稱夷、齊，心懷盜跖，欺公賣法，受納苞苴，產隨官厚，財與位積，雖贓汚未露，而姦詐如是。 Resisting an envoy earns death; how much more unministered words, slighting superiors, mouth naming Yi and Qi while heart harbors robbers, deceiving the public, taking bribes—wealth piled with rank though bribery was not yet exposed.

Book of Han, Chapter 76Volume 65: Dongfang Shuo · 2 passages

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是以伯夷、叔齊避周，餓於首陽之下，後世稱其仁。 Boyi and Shuqi fled the Zhou and starved on Shouyang; later ages honor their humanity.

非夷齊而是柳下惠，戒其子以上容：「首陽為拙，柱下為工； He rejected Bo Yi and Shu Qi's example in favor of Liuxia Hui's, counseling his son to bend with the times: "Retreat to Mount Shouyang was clumsy; service beneath the pillar was skillful;

Book of Han, Chapter 117Volume 100a: Afterword and Family History 1 · 2 passages

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三仁殊而一致兮，夷、惠舛而齊聲。 The three benevolent worthies walked different paths to the same goal; Yi and Hui clashed in style yet harmonized in purpose.

若乃夷抗行於首陽，惠降志於辱仕，顏耽樂於簞瓢，孔終篇於西狩，聲盈塞於天淵，真吾徒之師表也。 Then there were Boyi, who upheld his conduct on Mount Shouyang; Liuxia Hui, who humbled his aspirations to take a dishonorable post; Yan Hui, who delighted in his basket of rice and gourd of water; and Confucius, who brought his classic to an end with the hunt in the west. Their fame fills the space between heaven and the abyss; they are truly exemplars for men such as us.

Book of Later Han, Chapter 32Volume 28b: Biography of Feng Yan · 1 passage

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就伯夷而折中兮，得務光而愈明。 I seek Boyi for balance and find Wuguang until my purpose shines clearer.

History of Jin, Chapter 127Volume 127 Biographies 65: Xiao You, Wendihanwolubu, Chen Yan, Liu Yu, Meng Xing, Wang Zhen, Liu Zheng, Yin Yi, Chu Chengliang, Wang Qufei, Zhao Zhi, Du Shisheng, Hao Tianting, Xue Jiyuan, Gao Zhongzhen, Zhang Qian, Wang Rumei, Song Ke, Xin Yuan, Wang Yuke · 1 passage

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孔子稱逸民伯夷、叔齊、夷逸、硃張、柳下惠、少連，其立心造行之異同，各有所稱謂，而柳下惠則又嘗仕於當世者也。 Confucius praised the recluses Boyi, Shuqi, Yiyi, Zhuzhang, Liuxiahui, and Shaolian; though their purposes and conduct differed in ways that earned each his own epithet, Liuxiahui had also once held office in his own time.

Book of Liang, Chapter 14Volume 14: Jiang Yan; Ren Fang · 1 passage

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故輪蓋所遊，必非夷、惠之室； Thus wherever carriage wheels travel, it is not Bo Yi and Liu Xiahui's house;

Book of Liang, Chapter 31Volume 31: Yuan Ang; Yuan Junzheng · 1 passage

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及抗疏高祖，無虧忠節，斯亦存夷、叔之風矣。 when he stood firm in his memorial to Emperor Gaozu without failing in loyalty — this too preserves the spirit of Boyi and Shuqi.

Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter 61Biographies: Biography of Bo Yi · 11 passages

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孔子序列古之仁聖賢人，如吳太伯、伯夷之倫詳矣。 Confucius arranged and set forth the ancient benevolent sages and worthy men, including figures such as Wu Taibo and Bo Yi, in detail.

孔子曰：「伯夷、叔齊，不念舊惡，怨是用希。」 Confucius said, "Bo Yi and Shu Qi do not remember old wrongs; therefore resentment toward them is rare."