Gan Ji

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Gan Ji

干吉

Transliterations

Gan Ji (? – 200) was a Taoist priest who lived during the late Eastern Han Dynasty and Three Kingdoms era in ancient China.

According to the Book of Later Han, during the reign of the Emperor Shun of Han(125 AD – 144 AD), Gan Ji's disciples Gong Chong transmitted the Taiping Qingling Shu to the emperor.

Some believe the Yu Ji mentioned in the half-fictitious novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a misspelling of Gan Ji[1]. In the book, he once walked around the Wu castle for a few days, talking with soldiers and civilians everywhere and made everyone believe he was a magician and healer. The leader of Wu at that time, Sun Ce, had heard of his magic and grew suspicious of this magician. Sun thought that he was putting spells on everyone. Soon he decided to kill Gan Ji. But killing the innocent Gan Ji cursed Sun Ce in his dreams and eventually led to his death. However, given his activities in the beginning of the second century, some doubt that Yu Ji is not Gan Ji, but another person.

Many historians reject the account of Gan Ji and Sun Ce, suggesting that it is propaganda or just fiction. Reasons for this include Gan Ji's previously recorded activities (which would have made Gan Ji quite old by the time he even met Sun Ce). Only a select few historical texts mention Gan Ji being killed by Sun Ce. Of those that do, Gan Ji is not necessarily portrayed as an innocent victim; rather, in Jiangbiao zhuan, Sun Ce believes that Gan Ji is misleading the people (Sun Ce was a strict Confucianist). [2]

In Dynasty Warriors 5 a stage is based on Sun Ce's confrontation with Yu Ji, a fictional event. In the stage Sun Ce has to fight Yu Ji clones, as well as, a Da Qiao, and Sun Jian clone.