Bi Gan

Zhou, the last king of the Shang dynasty, has been traditionally regarded as notoriously cruel, immoral, and wasteful.

Prince Bigan continued to strongly criticise his ruler's conduct, and an enraged King Zhou ordered his execution, proclaiming that he wanted to see if it was true that a sage's heart had seven apertures.

[1] David Schaberg has argued that the tendency for later politicians to adopt an indirect style of critique when disagreeing with their rulers was influenced by the gruesome fate of figures like Prince Bigan.

"[4] The historian Fan Wenlan [zh] ranked Prince Bigan alongside Guan Longfeng, Qu Yuan, Zhuge Liang, and Wei Zheng as one of the great frank and courageous patriots of Chinese history.

Later accounts of the life of Prince Bigan added details, including that his execution came at request of King Zhou's notorious concubine Daji, because she objected that Prince Bigan had remonstrated with King Zhou for wasting money meant for the common good.