Boyi and Shuqi were two Dongyi brothers from Guzhu, a Dongyi vassal state under the Shang Dynasty. According to tradition, they lived at the time of the transition between the Shang dynasty and the Zhou dynasty. They are remembered in 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.
Di Xin (King Zhou) of the Shang dynasty accompanied by consort Daji, in the midst of their abominable acts. Nevertheless, Boyi and Shuqi indirectly swore loyalty to the dynasty after they fled their land of birth.
Depiction of King Wen of Zhou, originally a vassal of the Shang dynasty to whose territory Boyi and Shuqi fled after hearing reports of his able governance
Fiddlehead ferns, said to be Boyi and Shuqi's diet in exile, shown newly picked and washed. They are generally considered to be toxic before cooking.
Fiddlehead ferns, prepared dish.
Sima Qian was a Chinese historian during the early Han dynasty. He is considered the father of Chinese historiography for his Records of the Grand Historian, a general history of China covering more than two thousand years beginning from the rise of the legendary Yellow Emperor and the formation of the first Chinese polity to the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, during which Sima wrote. As the first universal history of the world as it was known to the ancient Chinese, the Records of the Grand Historian served as a model for official history-writing for subsequent Chinese dynasties and the Sinosphere in general until the 20th century.
Sima Qian
The first page of Shiji.
