32 Facts About Ruan Ji

Ruan Ji, courtesy name Sizong, was a Chinese musician, poet, and military officer who lived in the late Eastern Han dynasty and Three Kingdoms period.

Ruan Ji was one of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove.

Ruan Ji's father was Ruan Yu, one of the famed Seven Scholars of Jian'an who were promoted by the Cao clan in the Jian'an poetry era.

The Ruan Ji family were loyal to the Cao Wei, as opposed to the Sima family; however their moral convictions and willingness to speak out generally outmatched their actual military or political power.

Ruan Ji was poetically part of both the poetry of the Jian'an period and the beginning of the Six Dynasties poetry developments.

However, while Ji was still quite young, the fortune of the Ruan Ji family became imperiled with the rise of the Sima family: originally the Sima had merely served as officials under the Cao; but, as time went by they managed to accrue more and more power into their own family's hands, particularly beginning with Sima Yi this process of growth of power would eventually culminate in the founding of the Jin dynasty by Sima Yan.

Furthermore, during the time of Ruan Ji, there was ongoing peril from the ongoing military struggles with the kingdom of Shu Han, together with other impending military and political changes.

The life and creative work of Ruan Ji took place within a crucial and dramatic period in China history, which was associated with large changes in various spheres of life.

Ruan Ji witnessed bloody wars, struggles for power in the court of Wei, and the Sima family's rise.

Ruan Ji is usually mentioned first among the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove.

Ruan Ji talked in his works about "remote" things but about the "Bamboo Groove" he remained silent, although the group became the main focus of his searches for free and frank friendship.

Ruan Ji was one of that kind of people, who themselves made their life a masterpiece.

Ruan Ji read a lot, especially liking Laozi and Zhuangzi.

Ruan Ji drank a lot, he possessed the skill of transcendental whistling and loved to play on the qin.

Ruan Ji widely opened the way to court honour but he never hid his despise of the careerist attitudes of officials.

When Ji Kang came along carrying with him a jar of wine and the musical instrument known as a Qin, Ruan Ji welcomed him with his pupils and met him with happiness.

Ruan Ji was not talking about the imperfection of others, looked only with the whites of his eyes.

One of Ruan Ji's poems expresses how he discarded the norms of Confucius, although they were followed by such virtuous men like Yan Yuan and Min Sun, who were students of Confucius.

Ruan Ji obtains wisdom from the legendary Daoist Xian Menzi.

Ruan Ji's work reveals different sides of his inner world.

Ruan Ji achieved the most fame with his almanac Poems from My Heart, which contains 82 poems.

Ruan Ji's contemporaries said of Ruan Ji's work "The Life of a Great Man" that it revealed all his innermost thoughts.

Ruan Ji pursued nothing, stopped on nothing; he was in search of the Great Dao, and found shelter nowhere.

The world view of Ruan Ji mostly refers to Daoist tradition, but that doesn't mean that he was a Daoist.

Ruan Ji took from the Daoist philosophers of old what he thought important; in essence, he looked for "truth inside himself".

Ruan Ji had a many-sided personality, but poetry brought him the glory and fame of being the greatest poet of his epoch.

The poetry of Ruan Ji has the same mood, what differs is his soul and his world view.

Ruan Ji often uses contrast to underline the beauty of a moment that is always neighbouring the irresistible "emptiness" of death.

Ruan Ji's poems confront illusory life and tensity of every day matters, glory of a hero and solitude of a hermit, love's passion and the inevitability of separation.

All the lyrical poetry of Ruan Ji is penetrated by a thought of sorrow, which he accepted as an eternal and unavoidable friend, near him throughout life.

Ruan Ji perceived music not in sounds but in the world, music that is inherent to the world.

That means", Ruan Ji explained, "that perfect music doesn't arouse desires.