Ruan Ji

Ruan Ji

Ruan Ji (210-263), who was born in the Wei family of Chen Liu (now Kaifeng City, Henan Province), was a poet of Wei state and one of the Seven Sages of Zhulin in the Three Kingdoms period.

Menyin became an official, and he moved to be an infantry captain, known as Ruan infantry. He worshipped Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi's theory, but he took a cautious attitude in politics.

In 263, he died at the age of 54. As the representative of "zhengshizhiyin", he wrote 82 poems of yonghuai and biography of great man, and his works are included in Ruanji collection.

Life of the characters

Youth

Ruan Ji was born in 210, the 15th year of Jian'an. He lost his father at the age of three and was raised by his mother. After his father's death, his family was poor. Ruan Ji was diligent and talented. At the age of eight, he was able to write articles and play all day long. In his youth, he was eager to learn and loved to study Confucian poetry and books. At the same time, he did not admire honor and wealth, and took ancient sages with noble morality and happy life as examples.

Ruan Ji also practiced martial arts while he was writing. His yonghuai poem wrote: "when young people learn fencing, they have skillful skills in qucheng.". Ruan Ji was eccentric and light hearted. When he was about 16 or 17 years old, he once went to Dongjun with his uncle. When Wang Chang, the governor of Chongzhou, met him, he "never spoke a word", and Wang Chang "thought he could not predict.".

Ruan Ji had a political ambition to help the world. He once went to Wucheng, Guangguang, and watched the ancient battlefields of Chu and Han Dynasties. He sighed: "there were no heroes at that time, so that Lizi became famous!"

The beginning period

At that time, Cao Rui, emperor of the Ming Dynasty, had died, and Cao Shuang and Sima Yi were the assistants to Cao Fang. Around the third year of Zhengshi period (242), Jiang Ji, who was then a Taiwei, heard that Ruan Ji was "handsome and pleasant, and had high aspirations", so he asked Wang Mo for confirmation. After that, Jiang Ji prepared to recruit Ruan Ji to be his own family. When Ruan Ji heard the news, he wrote a note of playing, which he personally sent to the capital Pavilion outside Luoyang and asked the officials to transfer it to Jiang Ji. It is said in the play that he was born humble and had little talent and learning. Politely declined. At first, Jiang Ji was worried that Ruan Ji would not reply. Later, he learned that he had arrived at duting and mistakenly thought that he had already answered his orders. What he said in his play was just polite words, so he was very happy. So he sent someone to meet him. He didn't want Ruan Ji to go back. Jiang Ji was very angry and angry with Wang mo. Wang Mo was so afraid that he had to write to Ruan Ji. Ruan Ji's village Party relatives also came to persuade him that he was reluctant to take office, but he soon resigned. This is Ruan Ji's first official career in his life, which is obviously forced.

Around the eighth year of Zhengshi (247), Ruan Ji and Wang Rong's father served as shangshulang at the same time. Not long after Ruan Ji was free from shangshulang's illness, he was recruited to join the army by Cao Shuang. Ruan Ji politely refused. This is Ruan Ji's second official career. (Note: there are different records about whether Ruan Ji served as Cao Shuang's assistant in the army in the history books. Ruan Ji's biography in the book of Jin states: "he and Cao Shuang were called to join the army. Because of the disease, the screen is in the field. " That is, Ruan Ji did not join the army as Cao Shuang. However, the annotation of "the annals of the Three Kingdoms · Wei Shu · Wang can Zhuan" quoted "the spring and Autumn Annals of the Wei family" and wrote that "later he was shangshulang, and Cao Shuang joined the army." Here we refer to the records in the book of Jin.)

In 249, Cao Shuang was killed by Sima Yi. Sima killed many dissidents and was implicated. Ruan Ji had been politically inclined to the Cao Wei royal family and was dissatisfied with the Sima group. But at the same time, he felt that the world was no longer possible. So he took an attitude of not caring about right and wrong and protecting himself. He either studied behind closed doors, or climbed mountains and rivers, or was drunk, or kept silent.

Bamboo forest period

After Zhengshi, Ruan Ji, Ji Kang, Shan Tao, Liu Ling, Wang Rong, Xiang Xiu, Ruan Xian and other people were called "bamboo forest tour", and they were called "Seven Sages of bamboo forest" in history. Nowadays, the academic circles usually call the time of the Seven Sages' academic thought activities "bamboo forest period".

In April 249, Ruan Ji was changed to Jiaping. At the age of 40, Ruan Ji became Sima Yi's Zhonglang.

In the third year of Jiaping (251), after the death of Sima Yi, Ruan Ji became the Zhonglang of Sima Shi. He held this position until the sixth year of Jiaping (254).

In the sixth year of Jiaping, that is, the first year of Zhengyuan (254), after Cao Mao, the noble Xiang Gong, became the emperor, Sima Shi wantonly became an official of Jin Jue in order to win the hearts of the people. Ruan Ji was also given the title of Marquis of Guannei and official of migration.

In the second year of Zhengyuan (255), Sima Shi died of eye disease in the army when he attacked Qiu Jian and Wenqin. After Sima Shi, his younger brother Sima Zhao succeeded the general and Lu Shang. It may be this year that Ruan Ji took the initiative to ask Sima Zhao to take up the post in Dongping. Sima Zhao readily agreed. However, Ruan Ji came back after only ten days in Dongping. After returning to Luoyang from Dongping, Ruan Ji immediately became Sima Zhao's Zhonglang. He has been in this position for about a year.

In the first year of Ganlu (256), Ruan Ji asked to be an infantry captain. Although he was a subordinate officer of the central government, he did not have a close relationship with the emperor as a casual official. Although he was a military officer, he did not exercise military power, which would not cause pressure on Sima and arouse his suspicion. Ruan Ji held this position for the longest time, so later generations usually called it "Ruan infantry".

Zhong Hui, a confidant of Sima's family, had repeatedly inquired about Ruan Ji's views on current affairs, but Ruan Ji was exempted by drunkenness. Sima Zhao himself had talked with him several times to test his political opinions. He always dealt with the past by speaking in a mysterious way and not talking about other people, which forced him to say that "Ruan Si Zong was very careful.". Sima Zhao also wanted to get married with Ruan Ji, but he was so drunk for 60 days that it was impossible for the matter to proceed.

In October of 263, Sima Zhao was granted the title of Duke of Jin and Prime Minister of Jin. This was an important step for Sima Zhao to usurp his power. As a matter of routine, Cao Huan, the puppet emperor of the Wei Dynasty, issued an imperial edict to confer the title of Jin Jue. Sima's family was humble, and then he was "persuaded" by the Minister of state. At that time, Ruan Ji was appointed to write as an infantry captain, but Ruan Ji still drank wine. When the messenger came to urge the manuscript, Ruan Ji had to take wine to draft it.

Ruan Ji died in the winter of the fourth year of Jingyuan (263), one or two months after he wrote the persuasion form. He was 54 years old.

Main impact

On the metaphysics of Wei and Jin Dynasties

Metaphysics was very popular in Wei and Jin Dynasties, forming a strong "metaphysical wind". It not only once dominated the ideological field at that time, but also dominated the life attitude of the literati at that time, forming a kind of nihilistic social atmosphere. For Ruan Ji, he did not neglect the theory of metaphysics. For example, Dazhuang Lun and biography of great man are his works of metaphysics. In addition to the metaphysical theory, in fact, it is more and more directly reflected in the life attitude of drinking freely and defying etiquette and customs.

Under the influence of Ruan Ji and others, in the Jin Dynasty, especially in the Yuankang era, the nihilistic and unrestrained life attitude or life interest became a social fashion for a while, and even turned into the simple pursuit of sensory stimulation and physical indulgence.

Five character poem

Ruan Ji is the first person who has devoted himself to the creation of five character poems since Jian'an. His yonghuai poem connects 82 five character poems together and forms a huge group of poems. It also shapes the artistic image of a sad and indignant poet. This is a significant creation and a remarkable achievement. It has laid a foundation in the history of the development of five character poems, created a new realm and made a great contribution His contribution has a great influence on later writers. For example, Zuo Si, Zhang Zai and Tao Qian in Jin Dynasty (drinking), Bao Zhao in Liu Song in northern and Southern Dynasties, Yu Xin in Northern Zhou Dynasty, Chen Zi'ang in Tang Dynasty (feeling) and Li Bai (ancient style) are all five character poems with lyric expression, extensive coverage of real life and profound ideological content, which are the inheritance and development of Ruan Ji's yonghuai poems.

Ruan Ji's yonghuai poem expresses the poet's deep sorrow in life, full of strong sentimental mood and life consciousness, and gives people the Enlightenment of "Tao Xingling, express your thoughts". Ruan Ji's poems show the painful, struggling, depressed and despairing mental process of a generation of intellectuals in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, which has profound ideological significance and cognitive value, and has made an important contribution to the development of five character poems.

Ruan Ji's yonghuai poem appeared in the Chinese poetry world with its unique artistic style and aesthetic sentiment, which aroused strong repercussions at that time. After Ruan Ji, poets tried to imitate his works, which had a great influence. Later generations gave him a high evaluation of "worrying about the times, sympathizing with the chaos, sending things for no reason, but the words of" Jun Fang "and" sincere enough to look down on the eight wastelands and cage all things ". Yonghuai poem is the first of Zuo Si's eight poems on history and Tao Yuanming's twenty poems on drinking.

Ruan Ji's 82 yonghuai poems form a poetic style of "sadness, indignation, plaintive and obscure twists and turns" through different writing techniques, such as Bixing, symbolism, sustenance, satirizing the past and the present, expressing feelings through scenery, and image creation. Bixing and image building are the most important artistic techniques in yonghuai poem. Yonghuai poem pays attention to the refinement of words. It seems that the language is simple and does not need to be carved. In fact, the artistic conception is far-reaching and the words are appropriate.

The purport of Ruan Ji's yonghuai poem is just like Zhong Xia's saying: "Jue Zhi Yuan Fang, return to interest is hard to find" (Poetry). The ideological content of YongHuaiShi is very complex and extensive, but it highlights the sadness of short life and impermanence of life, the unforgettable of reality, and a kind of sadness and anxiety resulting from it.

Philosophical thought

Ruan Ji advocated Confucianism in his early years and was determined to use the world. Later, political turmoil occurred in the Wei and Jin Dynasties