Gods Supplemental 001: Boyi and Shuqi
Some quick background on two minor characters whose pacifist message fell on deaf ears.
Transcript
Welcome to the Chinese Lore Podcast, where I retell classic Chinese stories in English. This is supplemental episode 1 for Investiture of the Gods.
From time to time, I will do one of these supplemental episodes to take a deeper dive into some peripheral aspect or interesting minutiae that we touch on in the main narrative, so as to help listeners gain a broader perspective of the various historical and cultural references in the classic works that we cover. This is the first supplemental episode for Investiture of the Gods. It’s on two characters that we met oh-so-briefly in episode 60. Their names were Boyi (2,2) and Shuqi (1,2), and they tried unsuccessfully to talk the Marshal King Ji Fa out of leading the Zhou army East against the Shang.
As it turns out, Boyi and Shuqi were well known for their integrity, loyalty, and honor. The reason for that fame was also the reason they ended up in the kingdom of Zhou in the first place. Boyi and Shuqi were both actual historical figures. They were princes in a state that was a vassal to the Shang. The king of the state had three sons. Boyi was the eldest, while Shuqi was the youngest.
Now, by custom, the eldest son — Boyi — was supposed to inherit the throne in this kingdom. However, the king preferred his third son, Shuqi, and named him the heir apparent to the throne. But Shuqi, being a man of conscience, could not bear to take the throne from his eldest brother, so he decided to leave the kingdom so that the title of crown prince would fall to Boyi.
However, Boyi, also being a man of conscience, felt that he would be unfilial to his father if he were to assume the title, since he knew his father wanted Shuqi to be the heir apparent. So Boyi decided to also leave the state. And then, when he and Shuqi compared notes and realized they both had the same idea, they decided to skip town together. Their kingdom apparently did ok without them, since it would end up outliving the Shang Dynasty by a few hundred years.
But anyway, once they left their home, Boyi and Shuqi needed a new place to settle. They couldn’t find anywhere within the borders of the Shang that were not riddled by the strife caused by King Zhou’s tyrannical rule. They ended up going to the state of Zhou to seek sanctuary with the Grand Duke of the West, Ji Chang (1), aka the father of the Martial King Ji Fa. They went there because they had heard that Ji Chang was a compassionate lord who respected men of talent. And sure enough, he welcomed them.
After Ji Chang died, his son Ji Fa decided to march East to dethrone the House of Shang, Boyi and Shuqi blocked his army’s path and tried to convince him to drop the idea because it would be wrong for Ji Fa, the vassal, the attack King Zhou (4), the lord. This was the scene we witnessed in our story, and just like in our story, Boyi and Shuqi’s words fell on deaf ears. When the soldiers tried to threaten them with arms, Jiang Ziya stopped them, noting that Boyi and Shuqi were men of honor. So the soldiers simply lifted them up and put them on the side of the road while the army kept marching.
I don’t think I’m giving anything away here by noting that Ji Fa will accomplish his goal, which, yeah, by all indications that’s where the novel’s headed. When they heard the news, Boyi and Shuqi were heartbroken and enraged. They were sad to see the fall of the Shang, which was officially the ruling house to which they had pledged their allegiance. And they were angry at Ji Fa for turning his back on the king who was officially his lord and committing what is essentially treason.
But what were two powerless nobodies to do in this situation, especially since they had come to Zhou to seek sanctuary from the rest of the land? Well, Boyi and Shuqi swore an oath to never eat the grains of the Zhou kingdom again, as a protest against what they felt was the Martial King’s betrayal of honor and loyalty. So they went into a mountain and lived as recluses, feeding themselves only with what they could forage.
Unfortunately, all they could muster together on this mountain were a few pieces of tree bark and some ferns. After a short time, Boyi and Shuqi were starving. Yet, they remained steadfast to their oath to never eat the grains of the Zhou. And so, they ended up starving themselves to death.
For this rather extreme act of protest driven by their sense of morality, Boyi and Shuqi have gone down in history and legend as men of extraordinary honor and loyalty. They also became role models for subsequent generations on where one’s loyalty should lie if one happens to live through a dynastic struggle and change. Are you mourning the downfall of the previous dynasty? Well, then you could say you’re emulating Boyi and Shuqi.
Now, to be honest, I always thought it was an interesting, and perhaps undermining, nuance that Boyi and Shuqi were not on a hunger strike to protest the Zhou’s war against the Shang. Sure they swore the oath to never eat the grains of the Zhou, but they obviously didn’t stop eating everything, because once they hid in the mountain, they were still foraging for food, according to the story. They just couldn’t find enough and starved to death. So maybe the real takeaway here is that if you’re going to live like a recluse and a forager as an act of protest, you should really pick a mountain with more bountiful natural resources.
Anyway, that’s the backstory behind Boyi and Shuqi. Expect more supplemental episodes to come as we make our way through the last third of the novel. I’ll see you next time. Thanks for listening!
Music in This Episode
- “Sao Meo” by Doug Maxwell / Zac Zinger