Jizi

Jizi is named among the three men of virtue associated with the fall of the Yin dynasty. The account gives only one detail of his fate—that he became a slave—but places that outcome beside two different responses to political crisis, making the trio a compact portrait of virtue under a failing regime.

Identity and Record

The passage identifies Jizi as one of three exemplary figures of the Yin dynasty’s final period. It does not provide a biography, explain the circumstances of his enslavement, or describe what followed. His place in the record rests instead on the contrast among the three men and Confucius’ collective judgment of them.

The Three Men of Virtue

Jizi’s enslavement is set alongside Weizi’s withdrawal from the court and Bi Gan’s death after he remonstrated with the ruler. The three outcomes differ sharply: one leaves, one becomes a slave, and one dies while opposing the ruler. The passage does not rank these choices or supply their motives; its emphasis is that all three belong within the same moral category.

Significance

Confucius calls the three men men of virtue, turning their divergent fates into a shared example of integrity amid political collapse. Jizi’s brief mention gains meaning from this framing: although the text says little about his actions, it preserves his enslavement as part of a triad whose members face the crisis in distinct ways.