Ministers › Remonstrators
Du Gen
Eastern Han court gentleman who urged Empress Dowager Deng to hand power back to Emperor An, survived being beaten in a sack by feigning death and hid for fifteen years.
At dawn in a palace courtyard, a large drum hangs in a small roofed frame beside a red pillar, with a bound bundle of scrolls on a low stand in front; a stone balustrade leads toward a large hall in the mist, and a row of tiny people stands far away.
Also known as Zi Bojian · Du Bojian
- Roles
- Remonstrators
Du Gen, courtesy name Bojian, came from Dingling in Yingchuan. A court gentleman under Emperor An, he memorialised in 107, while Empress Dowager Deng ruled and her kin held power, that the emperor was old enough to govern himself. The furious regent had him put in a silk sack and beaten to death in the hall, but the officers held back their blows; he lay as dead for three days, escaped, and worked as a tavern hand in the hills of Yicheng for fifteen years. After the Deng clan fell he was recalled as censor, and under Emperor Shun he became governor of Jiyin. Tan Sitong's prison poem invokes his endurance.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; memorialised in 107 CE and served into the reign of Emperor Shun