Leadership Lessons from Confucius: constrained by circumstances

Weizi fled from Zhouxin, Jizi became his slave, and Bi Gan was executed for remonstrating with him. Confucius said: “The Yin Dynasty had three men of consummate conduct.”
微子去之，箕子為之奴，比干諫而死。孔子曰：「殷有三仁焉！」

Be honest with yourself. How much are you truly willing to sacrifice for your principles?

It is one thing to walk out of a job in protest at the outrageous demands being placed on you by your boss when you are young and single. It is quite another to quit when you have a spouse and family to support.

Never underestimate the power of the constraints of the circumstances that we operate it.

Notes

This article features a translation of Chapter 1 of Book 18 of the Analects of Confucius. You can read my full translation of Book 18 here.

(1) Zhouxin (紂辛) is the posthumous name given to the last king of the Shang/Yin dynasty (1600 BCE to 1046 BCE). The character 紂/zhòu is derogatory. It literally means horse crupper, the part of the saddle that is most likely to be soiled by the beast.

Also known as Dixin (帝辛), Zhouxin was born in 1105 BCE and ruled for 29 years from 1075 BCE to 1046 BCE. According to most accounts, including that of Sima Qian in The Records of the Historian, he started out his reign as a vigorous and intelligent ruler. However, in the latter part he succumbed to the temptations of wine, women, and song when he fell under the spell of his notorious consort Daji (妲己) and neglected affairs of state.

Sima Qian goes on to claim that the couple became so depraved that not even wild orgies were enough to satisfy their appetites. They also enjoyed paddling in small boats on a pool of wine that they drank from when thirsty, and when they were in need of real excitement liked to watch common prisoners and high-ranking officials who had incurred their displeasure being forced to hug a red-hot bronze cylinder filled with burning charcoal until they died.

Even if these tales are exaggerated, the couple’s increasingly tyrannical rule caused such deep concern among the king’s court officials that some of the more courageous ones such as Weizi, Jizi, and Bi Gan attempted to persuade their king to change his ways — only to suffer the most gruesome of consequences.

The growing weakness of the Shang dynasty under Zhouxin left it ripe for the taking. In 1046 BCE, King Wu defeated Zhouxin at the battle of Muye and established the Zhou dynasty. Following his defeat, Zhouxin committed suicide after gathering all his treasures in his palace and setting fire to the building. King Wu is said to have cut the head off his corpse and displayed it on a white flagpole for all to see. Daji’s head was also placed on a shorter pole after she was executed along with the heads of two other of his consorts who took their own lives.

(2) Weizi (微子) is the honorific title of Ziqi (子啓), the eldest brother of Zhouxin. It can be translated as Lord of Wei or Master of Wei, which was the name of the fief that Zhouxin conferred on him after becoming king.

Although both men had the same mother, Weizi was born when she was just a concubine of their father, King Yi, so he had no right to succeed to the throne. After Weizi’s mother was made the formal wife of King Yi, she gave birth to Zhouxin, who was made the crown prince and went on to rule after the death of their father.

Although by most accounts Zhouxin started out as a clever and capable monarch, his increasingly tyrannical behavior alarmed Weizi. After failing to persuade his younger brother to mend his ways, he fled into exile in order to safeguard the royal family’s ancestral temple for future generations.

When King Wu established the Zhou dynasty, Weizi was given the fiefdom of the small state of Song in return for submitting to his authority. He reigned as its duke for 13 years from 1038 BCE to 1025 BCE.

(3) Jizi (箕子) is the honorific title of Xuyu (胥餘), the oldest uncle of Zhouxin and according to some accounts the grand tutor of the king. After failing to convince his nephew to change his ways, Jizi is said to have pretended to be insane in order to avoid being forced to assume a senior official position in the evil regime and was thrown in prison and forced to labor as a slave.

After Zhouxin was overthrown, Jizi was released from captivity by King Wu of Zhou and acted as his advisor. Some later Han dynasty texts claim that King Wu subsequently gave the Korean peninsula to him as a fiefdom in gratitude for his assistance — though this is unproven.

(4) Bi Gan (比干) was also an uncle of Zhouxin and served as an official in his court. He took a much firmer stance against the despotic behavior of his nephew than either Weizi or Jizi, arguing that it was the duty of a minister to do what was right even if it meant death according to Sima Qian.

In one version of the tale of his gruesome death, Zhouxin is said to have been so infuriated by Bi Gan’s constant criticisms that he ordered his men to execute his uncle and cut out his heart to see if it had the seven openings that a true sage was believed to possess. Other versions of the tale suggest that it was Zhouxin’s evil consort Daji who got so tired of Bi Gan’s complaints about the couple’s depravity and extravagance that she persuaded her husband to have him killed. Because of his reputation for parsimoniousness, Bi Gan subsequently became deified as a god of wealth.

Some scholars argue that Bi Gan was much freer to criticize Zhouxin than Weizi or Jizi because he was a much lower ranked official than they were and had no family to protect. Even if that is true, it does nothing to diminish his boldness in speaking out against the autocratic behavior of his nephew.

(5) Confucius praises Weizi, Jizi, and Bi Gan as “men of consummate conduct” because of the great courage they showed in remaining true to their moral principles by refusing to serve such a tyrant. Given the particular circumstances they found themselves in, each one took the appropriate course of action to avoid supporting Zhouxin. I can’t help feeling especially sorry for poor old Bigan, however, who ended up paying the highest price for his valor because he had the least to lose for standing up against the tyrant.

I shot this image in a hillside temple on the Four Beasts near to Taipei.