Bo Yikao was the eldest son of

King Wen of Zhou King Wen of Zhou ( zh, c=周文王, p=Zhōu Wén Wáng; 1152–1050 BC, the Cultured King) was the posthumous title given to Ji Chang ( zh, c=姬昌), the patriarch of the Zhou state during the final years of Shang dynasty in ancient China. J ...

and the elder brother of King Wu who was the founder of the

Zhou dynasty The Zhou dynasty ( ) was a royal dynasty of China that existed for 789 years from until 256 BC, the longest span of any dynasty in Chinese history. During the Western Zhou period (771 BC), the royal house, surnamed Ji, had military ...

ancient China The history of China spans several millennia across a wide geographical area. Each region now considered part of the Chinese world has experienced periods of unity, fracture, prosperity, and strife. Chinese civilization first emerged in the Y ...

. As a member of the Zhou royal house, his

family name In many societies, a surname, family name, or last name is the mostly hereditary portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family. It is typically combined with a given name to form the full name of a person, although several give ...

was Ji (姬). refers to his status as the oldest son of his father; may have been his

personal name A personal name, full name or prosoponym (from Ancient Greek ''prósōpon'' – person, and ''onoma'' –name) is the set of names by which an individual person or animal is known. When taken together as a word-group, they all relate to that on ...

's element or a

posthumous name A posthumous name is an honorary Personal name, name given mainly to revered dead people in East Asian cultural sphere, East Asian culture. It is predominantly used in Asian countries such as China, Korea, Vietnam, Japan, Malaysia and Thailand. ...

used for ritual purposes; either means "long-lived" or is a posthumous epithet used to refer to a deceased father. It is known that he did not inherit his father's realm along the Wei River. Based on later Chinese inheritance laws and legends, it is typically thought that he predeceased his father, e.g. by

Sima Qian Sima Qian () was a Chinese historian during the early Han dynasty. He is considered the father of Chinese historiography for the ''Shiji'' (sometimes translated into English as ''Records of the Grand Historian''), a general history of China cov ...

. Stories such as the '' Fengshen Yanyi'' lay the guilt upon

King Zhou King Zhou (; ) was the pejorative posthumous name given to Di Xin of Shang () or Shou, King of Shang (), the last king of the Shang dynasty of ancient China. He is also called Zhou Xin (). In Chinese, his name Zhòu ( 紂) also refers to a horse c ...

, the last king of the

Shang dynasty The Shang dynasty (), also known as the Yin dynasty (), was a Chinese royal dynasty that ruled in the Yellow River valley during the second millennium BC, traditionally succeeding the Xia dynasty and followed by the Western Zhou d ...

, and the traditional account of his death was taken by later Chinese jurists as the first instance of '' lingchi'' (the "death by a thousand cuts"). However, passages in the ''

Book of Rites The ''Book of Rites'', also known as the ''Liji'', is a collection of texts describing the social forms, administration, and ceremonial rites of the Zhou dynasty as they were understood in the Warring States and the early Han periods. The '' ...

'' and the '' Masters of Huainan'' assume that King Wu's inheritance simply represented an aberration or even an older tradition among the Zhou of passing over the eldest son. In traditional accounts not entirely dismissed by modern scholarship, Bo Yikao's granduncle

Taibo of Wu Taibo () (circa 1150 BCE), or Wu Taibo, was the eldest son of King Tai of Zhou and the legendary founder of the State of Wu. His exact birth and death dates are unknown. Biography According to Sima Qian, Taibo was the founder of the State of Wu. ...

had likewise been passed over in favor of a younger son.

In fiction

In the '' Fengshen Yanyi'', Xu Zhonglin. '' Fengshen Yanyi'', Ch. 19. Bo Yikao is the oldest and most outstanding son of

Ji Chang King Wen of Zhou ( zh, c=周文王, p=Zhōu Wén Wáng; 1152–1050 BC, the Cultured King) was the posthumous title given to Ji Chang ( zh, c=姬昌), the patriarch of the predynastic Zhou, Zhou state during the final years of Shang dynasty in ...

, the "Duke of the West" of the

. He is well versed in music and the arts, handsome, and filial. The book recounts the story of Chang's imprisonment at Youli and (ahistorically) credits Yikao with bringing the bribes to free him. At his audience, King Zhou's concubine Daji finds Yikao attractive and has the king employ him to teach her how to play the

zither Zither (; , from the Greek ''cithara'') is a class of stringed instruments. The modern instrument has many strings stretched across a thin, flat body. Zithers are typically played by strumming or plucking the strings with the fingers or a ...

. During a lesson, Daji attempts to seduce the boy but he rejects and ridicules her. Daji's infatuation turns to hatred: she complains to the king that Yikao molested her and insulted the king in his music. King Zhou is furious and he orders Yikao to be executed, minced into pieces, and made into meat cakes. The king then sends the cakes to Ji Chang. Ji Chang's mastery of divination means he has already foreseen his son's fate but, in order not to arouse the king's suspicion, he hides his sorrow and gleefully consumes the cakes. Thinking his divination incompetent, the king then allows the duke to leave. On the way home, the grieving Ji Chang vomits out the meat, which transforms into three white rabbits that are later brought under the care of the moon goddess

Chang'e Chang'e ( ; ), originally known as Heng'e (), is the goddess of the Moon and wife of Hou Yi, the great archer. Renowned for her beauty, Chang'e is also known for her ascending to the Moon with her pet Yu Tu, the Moon Rabbit and living in the Mo ...

. The horrible death of Bo Yikao has solidified the will of the Zhou people to rebel and overthrow the tyrannical King Zhou. Four years after the death of Ji Chang, Bo Yikao's younger brother Ji Fa rises up and defeated King Zhou at the

Battle of Muye The Battle of Muye, Mu, or Muh () was fought between forces of the ancient Chinese Shang dynasty led by King Zhou of Shang and the rebel state of Zhou led by King Wu. The Zhou defeated the Shang at Muye and captured the Shang capital Yin, ...

and establishing the

. Bo Yikao's soul is assigned by

Jiang Ziya Jiang Ziya ( century BC – 11th century BC), also known by several other names, also known by his posthumous name as the Duke Tai of Qi, was the founding monarch of the Qi state. He was a military general and strategist who as ...

as the Zi Wei Emperor, who rules over the

North Pole The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distingu ...

Ancestry

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yikao, Bo Investiture of the Gods characters