Shu Qi (叔齊) | 24 Histories

Overview

The translated histories identify Shu Qi as an aristocrat, hermit, and named individual. This record brings together 15 passages from 6 chapters across 5 histories, with names, dates, relationships, offices, and events preserved as source-backed claims.

Names

Type	English	Chinese	Pinyin
Personal	Shu Qi	叔齊	Shū Qí
Personal name	Qi	齊	Qí
Personal name	Shu Qi	叔齊	Shū Qí
Alternate	Shu Qi	齊	Shu Qi
Personal	Shu Qi	叔齊	Shu Qi
Personal	Shuqi	叔齊	Shuqi
Personal name	Shuqi	叔齊	Shuqi
Personal name	Shuqi	叔
Personal name	Shuqi	叔齊

Identity

Historicity: Uncertain
Identification: Named
Sex: Male

Sex: male
Explicit · beiqishu:047:s0074, shiji:061:s0015
Sex: male
Strongly inferred · hanshu:076:s0310, jinshi:127:s0049, liangshu:038:s0274

Roles

Aristocrat
Hermit
Named Individual

Life and dates

Death

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

Attested activity

Source Date: Text: 逸民 · Qualitative: legendary antiquity
Explicit · jinshi:127:s0049
Qualitative: legendary antiquity
Explicit event contextual date · beiqishu:047:s0074
Qualitative: legendary antiquity
Explicit · liangshu:031:s0139, liangshu:038:s0274, shiji:061:s0011, shiji:061:s0015, shiji:061:s0019, shiji:061:s0021, shiji:061:s0028, shiji:061:s0034, shiji:061:s0037, shiji:061:s0058

Family

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

Sibling of Bo Yi (伯夷)
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
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: 2 · Object Birth Order: 3
Kinship Term: brothers / 兄弟 · Shared Parentage: full · Subject Relative Age: younger · Subject Birth Order: 3 · Object Birth Order: 2
Child of Lord of Guzhu (孤竹君)
Kinship Term: father / 父 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: father · Object Role: son · Object Birth Order: 3 · Line: paternal
Kinship Term: son / 子 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: son · Object Role: father · Subject Birth Order: 3 · 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: 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

Events and relationships

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: 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
Kind: hypothetical · Role: guardian · Action: would not have succeeded if set to guard the western river · Place: western river / 西河 · Provenance: Mode: quoted-speech · Speaker Person Id: Emperor Wu of Liang (梁武帝)
Explicit · liangshu:038:s0274
Kind: political · Role: heir-designate-refuser · Action: yielded-to-Bo-Yi-then-fled · Other Person Id: Bo Yi (伯夷)
Explicit · shiji:061:s0016, shiji:061:s0019

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 · shiji:061:s0015

References in the histories

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

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;

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 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.

Book of Liang, Chapter 38Volume 38: Zhu Yi; He Chen · 1 passage

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向使叔齊守于西河，豈能濟事？ If Shu Qi alone had held the western river, would anything have been accomplished?

Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter 61Biographies: Biography of Bo Yi · 9 passages

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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."

伯夷、叔齊，孤竹君之二子也。 Bo Yi and Shu Qi were sons of the ruler of Guzhu.