Bo Yi

Also known as Motai Shi

Bo Yi was the eldest son of the lord of Guzhu at the end of the Shang; Sima Zhen's Shiji commentary gives the clan surname as Motai. According to the Shiji biography of Bo Yi, their father meant to make the youngest son, Shuqi, his heir, but on his death Shuqi offered the throne to Bo Yi, who left rather than go against their father's wish; Shuqi too refused and followed him, and the people of Guzhu enthroned the middle son. They went west to the Earl of the West, said to care for the old, but found him dead and King Wu marching on the Shang with his father's tablet, and they seized his horse's reins in protest. When the Zhou had conquered the Shang, they thought it shameful to eat Zhou grain, withdrew to Mount Shouyang to live on wild ferns, and starved there, singing a song as they died. In the Analects (Lunyu) Confucius calls them worthies of old who sought humaneness and attained it.