Bi Gan

Also known as Wangzi Bigan · Zi Gan

Bi Gan was a member of the Shang royal house; the Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji) calls him a kinsman of King Zhou, later tradition makes him the king's uncle, and Kong Anguo's commentary on the Book of Documents identifies him with the junior tutor named there. According to the Shiji, when the king's excesses would not stop, Bi Gan declared that a minister must contend even at the cost of his life; the angry king said he had heard a sage's heart has seven openings and had him cut open to look. The Analects records that Weizi left, Jizi became a slave and Bi Gan died remonstrating, and that Confucius called them the three humane men of Yin. The Shiji says King Wu had a mound raised over his tomb. In 494 Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei, passing the tomb, wrote a lament for him and had it carved on a stele. Many Lin clan genealogies name him as their ancestor.