A Chinese Biographical Dictionary/Fu Shêng (伏勝)
599 Fu Shêng 伏勝 or 伏生 (T. 子賤). 2nd and 3rd cent. B.C. A native of Chi-nan in Shantung, who at the time of the "Burning of the Books" (see Li Ssŭ) concealed a copy of the Canon of History in the wall of his house. Driven from his home during the troublous times which ensued, upon his return under the Han dynasty he found only 29 sections of the work remaining, and these he at once set to work to teach. Later on, when the Emperor Wên Ti wished to reproduce the above Canon, he sent for Fu Shêng. But the old man was then over 90 years of age, and could not obey the summons. He handed over to Ch'ao Ts'o, the Imperial Commissioner, the work such as it remained to him. Another less trustworthy account says that he had preserved more than 20 sections of the Canon in his memory, and repeated them verbatim to an officer who took down the words from his dictation. In A.D. 647 his tablet was placed in the Confucian Temple. A descendant of his, named Fu 湛 Chan, popularly known as 伏不闞, was a virtuous official under the last Emperors of the Han dynasty, and was put to death by Ts'ao Ts'ao.