Bi Gan is a real figure in history, he is the uncle of Emperor Xin of the Shang Dynasty. That is to say, Di Xin's father, Di Yi and Bi Gan, were half-brothers. It's just that Emperor Yi is out of the house, and Bi Gan is out of the house.
Although Bigan was Di Xin's uncle, he was actually Di Xin's minister. In a dynasty like Xia Shang Zhou, due to the strict hierarchy, ordinary people did not have the opportunity to become ministers in the dynasty, and only the relatives of the king, who were very noble in rank, had such qualifications.
(Bigan statue)
Bigan was not only Di Xin's minister, but also an unusual minister, and his position was that of a young master, equivalent to Di Xin's chancellor. Di Xin's major affairs in the DPRK and China were all handled by Bigan. However, Bigan was also a very sad prime minister, and he was inconsistent with Di Xin's ideas in all aspects. Bigan advocates lightly dispensing with thin endowments and allowing the people to recuperate. At the same time, in terms of management, it is also advocated that severe punishment should not be used to destroy the people.
But Di Xin is not such a view. Di Xin is a person with a strong sense of merit. He believed that relying on the strength of the Shang Dynasty, it was fully capable of defeating the surrounding ethnic minority tribes and obtaining the wealth and people of these ethnic minority tribes. At the same time, he believes that the people in the country should be strictly managed, and only by punishing those who have committed crimes with severe punishment can the people keep to themselves in peace.
Bi Gan had much advice to Di Xin for his good deeds and cruelty and inhumanity. When Di Xin launched a large army to attack Xu Yi, Bi Gan advised Di Xin not to do so. But Di Xin did not listen to Bigan. Although Di Xin later defeated Xu Yi and took a large part of their population as prisoners, the Shang Dynasty's national strength was greatly weakened.
Then, Di Xin launched a war with Dongyi, destroying Dongyi and obtaining a large number of prisoners from Dongyi. However, it has also weakened the national strength once again, and the country is already on the verge of collapse. Therefore, the Western Zhou Dynasty created a rebellion. Western Zhou was nominally a vassal state of the Shang Dynasty, and Emperor Xin was furious and prepared to launch a war with Western Zhou. Bigan objected as always, and was slow to move when it came time to send troops. This time, Di Xin couldn't bear it any longer and killed Bigan in a fit of rage.
(Teissin Image)
How Di Xin killed Bigan is not recorded in history. However, in the Qing Dynasty novel "Fengshen Yanyi", it is written that Di Xin was ill at that time, and Dai Ji said that he needed to use Bigan's Seven Tricks Linglong Heart as a medicinal primer. Bi Gan obviously knew that He wanted to let himself die in this way, but there was no way, and the loyal and patriotic Bi Gan had originally cut open his chest, took out his heart and threw it on the ground.
When Bigan took out his heart and threw it on the ground, his chest did not bleed, nor did he die, but he walked out of the hall with a pale gold face. When many ministers asked him, he did not speak, but rode his horse to the people.
He came to the folk and met a woman who sold heartless vegetables. Bigan asked her if she could live without a heart, and if a person had no heart, would he die. If the woman had said she would not die, Bigan would have lived forever. But what the woman said was that how could she live without a heart!
After Hearing this, Bigan cried out and fell off his horse, bleeding to death.
The question arises, why did Bikan bleed to death when he heard the woman's words?
To understand this question, we must first look at what kind of novel "Fengshen Yanyi" is.
(Image of Zhou Wuwang)
This novel is indeed written about the history of the Western Zhou Dynasty that replaced the Shang Dynasty. However, it is not entirely true history, and there are many fictional elements in it, especially a fictional one of the intervention of gods and demons in changing dynasties.
This novel is about the truth of "Heavenly Dao". That is to say, what is the law of dynastic change? It is whether the king is virtuous or not, whether he has the support of the people of the world. If this king is virtuous and can win the support of the common people, then this king can gain the country. The king who obtains the jiangshan can therefore guard the jiangshan. This is the "Way of Heaven". To sum up, it is one sentence: "Those who have virtue in the world live in it." ”
Since "the virtuous dwell in the world," if someone has virtue, heaven will help him. The historical term for help is "divine help in the darkness." In the "Fengshen Yanyi", it is about the gods and immortals in the heavens coming down to help them personally. This is the novel "The Evolution of the Fengshen Gods", which has allegorical significance.
In the "Fengshen Yanyi", King Wu of Zhou is naturally a "virtuous" person, and naturally should be protected by heaven. Di Xin is naturally a "pathless" person, and naturally he should be punished by heaven. But although Di Xin had no way, he had a group of "virtuous" ministers, and Bigan was one of them.
Di Xin had no way out and took away Bigan's heart. The "heart" here actually represents a kind of heavenly path. That is to say, originally Tiandao thought that the Shang Dynasty was no longer worthy of owning the world, but because there were a bunch of "virtuous" ministers, the Shang Dynasty was still able to survive. However, when Bigan was "cursed", the Shang Dynasty lost the Heavenly Dao. If you lose the Heavenly Dao, you will naturally lose the support of the common people. Bi Gan asked the women of the common people whether they had the heart to live, in fact, it was a metaphor that the Shang Dynasty had lost the Heavenly Dao, lost the support of the common people, and could not survive. Of course, the common people said that they could not survive, so that Bi Gan understood that he was powerless to return to heaven, so he was so angry that he bled to death.
(References: "Fengshen Yanyi", "The Unity of Heaven and Man", etc.)