best friend. He was also one of the leaders of Wagang Fort rebellion. After Wagang Fort's collapse, he served for the warlord Wang Shichong (王世充). When his old time friends including Qin Shubao, Cheng Yaojin (程咬金) and Xu Shiji (徐世勣, or Xu Maogong 徐茂公) were all leaving for Li Shimin, he stayed with Wang Shichong, because Li Shimin's father Li Yuan mistakenly killed his brother Shan Xiongzhong (单雄忠, or Shan Dao 单道) in early years. Later, he married Wang Shichong's daughter. After the battle of Luoyang, the ally of Wang Shichong, Meng Haigong (孟海公), Gao Tansheng (高檀晟), Zhu Can(朱灿) and Dou Jiande (窦建德) collapsed. Wang Shichong surrendered to Tang Dynasty, but Shan Xiongxin chose to die. Before he was beheaded, Qin Shubao, Cheng Yaojin and Xu Shiji came to see him in the jail. They drank a lot and cried a lot, saying they would be friends again in afterlife. Then, before the execution, Xu Shiji cut off a piece of flesh from his leg and asked Shan Xiongxin to eat, because they believed that with that flesh, they would be together forever. After Shan Xiongxin ate the flesh, he was executed. Archetype Shan Xiongxin was a real person in Sui Dynasty, and most stories in the book were close to the history. The book somehow glorified Shan Xiongxin because in real history he had several significant disadvantages in his personality. However, the story that he ate Xu Shiji's flesh was a real one which impressed people for thousand years. References Shuo Tang by Unknown, Qing Dynasty Old Book of Tang, vol. 68. Zizhi Tongjian, vols. 182, 183, 185, 187, 188, 189, 190, 191. Old Book of Tang, vols. 2, 3. New Book of Tang, vol. 2. Chinese folklore