Baili Xi

Also known as Wugu Dafu · Baili

Baili Xi was a grandee of the small state of Yu in the Spring and Autumn period. When Duke Xian of Jin destroyed Yu in 655 BCE he captured Baili Xi and later sent him to Qin in the dowry retinue of Duke Mu's bride. The Basic Annals of Qin in the Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji) say he fled from Qin to Wan, where Chu borderers seized him; fearing that a large ransom would reveal his worth, Duke Mu bought him back for five black ram skins when he was already over seventy. After three days of talk the duke gave him charge of the government, and he became known as the Five-Ram-Skin Grandee; he in turn recommended his friend Jian Shu. Mencius rejected the story that he had sold himself to tend cattle. In the Shiji biography of Lord Shang, Zhao Liang recalls that as minister he never rode in a carriage, and that at his death children in Qin stopped singing.