Bi Gan 比干 - a prominent historical figure of the Shang dynasty, son of Wen Ding 文丁, Zi 子 lineage, thus member of the royal house and uncle of the last Shang king, Zhou Xin 紂王.
Notorious for his corruptness, the king was annoyed by Bi Gan's advice to rectify his ways. He ordered Bi Gan's execution through extraction of the heart 比干剖心, under the eerie pretext of curiosity "whether the Sage's heart has seven openings". The plot became a popular element of the Warring States philosophic discourse.
Bi Gan was honored by Confucius as "one of the three men of virtue" of the Shang, together with the viscount of Wei 微子 and Jizi 箕子 (The Analects, Wei Zi chapter).
Personality of Bi Gan was later transformed into a religious abstraction known as Cai Shen. It was greatly popularized by depiction in the famous Ming dynasty novel The Investiture of the Gods, describing his confrontation with Daji.
Famous quotes containing the word gan:
“For which he wex a litel red for shame,
Whan he the peple upon him herde cryen,
That to beholde it was a noble game,
How sobreliche he caste doun his yen.
Criseyda gan al his chere aspyen,
And let so softe it in her herte sinke
That to herself she seyde, “Who yaf me drinke?””
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340–1400)