16 Facts About Ji Yun

Ji Yun, known as Ji Xiaolan or Ji Chunfan was a Chinese philosopher, politician, and writer.

Ji Yun was an influential scholar of Qing dynasty China and many anecdotes have been recorded about him.

Ji Yun was born in Xian County of Zhili province.

Ji Yun's father Ji Rongsu was a civil minister and archaeologist.

In 1747, Ji Yun rose to intellectual prominence after winning the highest distinction in the provincial examinations.

One year later, Ji Yun was pardoned from his sentence, and, on his return journey in 1771, he wrote a travel account distilled into 160 poems titled Xinjiang zalu.

Ji Yun was an avid tobacco smoker, which he famously smoked with his pipe.

Ji Yun was an enthusiastic food gourmet with a special liking for fatty pork and strong tea and disliked starchy staple foods like rice, potatoes, wheat and corn.

Ji Yun loved women and had many concubines throughout his life.

Ji Yun seldom rode sedan chairs and preferred to walk.

Ji Yun's tales included "true" weird tales, investigations of paranormal phenomena, as well as horror stories, parables, accounts of strange natural phenomena, and satirical portraits of prominent Neo-Confucian scholars and government officials.

Between 1789 and 1798, Ji Yun published five collections of supernatural tales, and in 1800 the five volumes were produced under the collective title Yuewei Caotang Biji.

The mansion in which Ji Yun lived for the last thirty years of his life was originally the residence of General Yue Zhongqi, the twenth-first generational descendant of the renowned anti-Jurchen Jin, Song dynasty loyalist and general Yue Fei, who is one of the most renowned figures in Chinese history.

Ji Yun never lived for very long in the capital, his base being in Sichuan and Gansu.

Ji Yun lived in the mansion for thirty years and several features of the dwelling that the visitor can still see today are associated with him.

Unlike slim Zhang however, the real Ji Yun was known for being obese in stature.