The character Bi and the Bi people were much recorded in available inscriptions on bones and tortoise shells and in bronze objects. All the variants of the variable Bi were derived and varied from the character Bi, which originally stood for a “longhandles smallsize net” top trap birds or animals. The character Bi was pronounced either as Bi or as Qin and interchanged with Fei but the character Bi and all derivatives from it were all associated with the sense of trapping birds or animals. The Bi people was a tribal nation knighted by the king in the Shang Dynasty and took frequent part in royal diplomatic missions, conquests, sacrifices, hunting, reclaiming wasteland and contributing tribute, leaving their footsteps in extensive areas in the reaches of the Huanghe River and those of the Huaihe River. A tribe good at trapping birds and animals, the Bi people’s deeds and activities much coincided with those of the early ancestors of the Qin people. All this offered new important clues to investigate the origin and westward migration and historical experience of the Qin people in the Shang Dynasty.

the character Bi; the variable of Bi; origin of the Qin people; westward migration of the Qin people