Who Were Bo Yi and Shu Qi in the Analects?

If you want a compact entry before you open each chapter page, the people index labels them as Bo Yi and Shu Qi—ancient worthies associated with integrity, yielding power, and freedom from resentment. That line is enough for you to start: follow the linked scenes, keep source text, guide, and English translation in their layers, and refuse to invent sayings the live pages do not show. Treat the index as a map of doors, not as a finished essay that replaces reading. In Legge you may also see “Po-i” and “Shu-ch'i”; on this site the same pair is Bo Yi and Shu Qi. For orientation you may name Gong Ye Chang 5.22, Shu Er 7.14, Ji Shi 16.12, and Wei Zi 18.8 in prose—this Note’s live doors stay fewer.

In Shu Er 7.14 Ran You wonders whether the Master supports the ruler of Wei. Zi Gong says he will ask, goes in, and asks what sort of men Bo Yi and Shu Qi were. The Master answers: ancient worthies. Zi Gong asks whether they had any repinings because of their course. The Master replies that they sought to act virtuously and they did so—what was there for them to repine about? (On the same live page, the Chinese source and modern guide give 求仁而得仁，又何怨—they sought ren and obtained ren, so what resentment?) Zi Gong goes out and concludes that the Master is not for the Wei ruler. You can take that as a door about integrity without leftover grievance—and about how naming worthies can quietly answer a political question—not as a slogan for quitting every office, and not as a career tip invented outside the text. When you cite it later, keep Chinese and English layers visible on that live page.

Elsewhere you may lightly open The Analects · Ke She 16.12: Duke Jing of Qi had a thousand teams of four horses, yet on the day of his death the people did not praise him for a single virtue—set beside Bo Yi and Shu Qi, who starved at the foot of Shau-yang mountain and whom people still praise. Hold that only as a light side door about praise versus unused display—not as a Duke Jing of Qi Note (that Note stays with 君君、臣臣 in Yen Yuan 12.11), and not as the money door of this page. You can glance once, then return; this Note stays with who Bo Yi and Shu Qi are and how you read 求仁而得仁 in Shu Er 7.14.

Elsewhere in the book you may meet Duke Jing of Qi on roles, Yao–Shun–Yu on sage kings, or Duke Ling of Wei on disorder—different doors, different questions. This Note stays with Bo Yi and Shu Qi as one pair; it is not a multi-ruler biography and it does not retell those separate scenes. You should not merge them into one “worthies and dukes” résumé, and you should not treat this page as a rewrite of 12.11, a Yao–Shun–Yu overview, or a Wei Ling 无道 Note. Keep each name tied to its own live passages when you need them.

When you quote the Master’s answer on Bo Yi and Shu Qi, or Zi Gong’s conclusion about the Wei ruler, you should name the live chapter URL and say whether you used source Chinese, the modern guide, or Legge’s English. You can mention search interest lightly if needed, but you should never invent impression counts or history dates the brief did not give. Your honesty is the passage page, not a smoother paraphrase that invents a saying.

When you are ready for the clearest door on Bo Yi and Shu Qi—ancient worthies who sought ren and got ren, without leftover resentment—open The Analects · Shu R. 7.14 and read source, guide, and Legge side by side. Ask yourself which grievance you still owe to drop—then stop, and return to the live text rather than to a summary of the brothers.