 Sometime in the 200s, when the warlord Sun Quan held the nominal appointment General Who Attacks Barbarians (), he recruited Bu Zhi to serve as his Chief Scribe (), and later appointed him as the Chief () of Haiyan County (海鹽縣; present-day Pinghu, Zhejiang).After holding office in Haiyan County for a few years, Bu Zhi claimed that he was ill and resigned.He then travelled around the Wu territories with Zhuge Jin and Yan Jun.