Bi Gan

Star of Literature

Loyal Shang minister whose heart was demanded by Daji; canonized as the star of letters.

Bi Gan, uncle and chief minister of the tyrant King Zhou, admonished the king so relentlessly that Daji, the fox in human form, feigned illness and demanded his seven-orifice heart. Bi Gan opened his own breast to prove his loyalty and died; Confucius already counted him among the three worthies of the collapsing Shang. In the Fengshen Yanyi he returns as the Star of Literature, loyalty rewarded beyond death.