Ruan Ji (210 - 263), style name 嗣宗 Sizong, was from 陳留尉氏 Weishi (still on modern maps, south of Kaifeng), in Chenliu (district).... (Son of Ruan Yu. Important literary figure, Daoist, drunkard and musician. One of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove. Associated with the melody Jiu Kuang.)
Qinshu Daquan has one of his writings,Yue Lun.4 See
Folio 16, #56; it concerns Ji Liuzi playing qin into the wind.
This is from his biography in Giles (see Yuan Chi; Romanization is modified here):
"His youth was a strange mixture of wildness and hard study. Sometimes he would wander away on the hills and forget to return, and at length come back crying bitterly; at other times he would shut himself up with his books and see no one for months. The age was unsuited for steadiness and perseverance, and accordingly he gave himself up to drinking and revelry. He rose to high military office uner the Emperor Wei Wen Di, and then exchanged his post for one where he had heard there was a better cook! He was a model of filial piety, and when his mother died he wept so violently that he brouht up several pints of blood. Yet when Ji Xi (嵇喜) went to condole him, he showed only the whites of his eyes (i.e., paid no attention to him); while Ji Xi's brother (n.b.: Xi Kang), who carried along with him a jar of wine and a "guitar" (?), was welcomed with the pupils. A neighbouring tavern-keeper had a pretty wife, and Ruan Ji would go there and drink until he fell down insensible on the floor. He was a skilled poet, though much of his work was too hastily done. He is specially know for his Yong Huai Shi (詠懷詩), a poem dealing with the calamities of his day. He also wrote the Xiansheng Daren Lun (先生大人論), a work composed after an intervfiew with the hermit Sun Deng (孫登). He was a fine musician, and made the best zheng (箏), his instruments being the 'Strads' of China. He was one of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove."
The entry on Ruan Ji also discusses his nephew Ruan Xian, and Ruan Xian's son, Ruan Zhan.
Further details in preparation.
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Ruan Xian5 (3rd c. CE) |
Ruan Xian playing his 阮 Ruan6
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Ruan Xian was a nephew of Ruan Ji. Xu Jian discusses him in QSCB,
Chapter 3.A. (p.25).
Both Qin Ji and
a poem by Li Ye say he wrote
Sanxia Liu Quan (see, e.g., in YFSJ).
Giles (Yüan Hsien) writes,
In his youth he was a wild harum-scarum fellow, nobody knowing what would be his next escapade. He and his uncle (Ruan Ji), both poverty-stricken, lived on one side of the road, while a wealthier branch of the family lived on the other side. On the 7th of the 7th moon the latter put out all their grand fur robes and fine clothes to air, as is customary on that day; whereupon Ruan Xian on his side forked up a pair of the short breeches, called calf-nose drawers, worn by the common coolies, explaining to a friend that he was a victim to the tyranny of custom. He was a fine performer on the (ruan), and understood the theory of music. He found fault with 荀勗 Xun Xu's arrangement of the octave, declaring that the intervals were incorrect; for which Xun Xu avenged himself by getting Ruan Xian sent away as Governor of 始平 Shiping in Shaanxi. The discovery shortly afterwards of the measurements of the Zhou dynasty showed that Ruan Xian was right, the length of each of Xun Xu's pitch-pipes being out by a millet-grain.
The modern 阮 ruan, once known as the 秦琵琶 Qin pipa, is said to have been invented by and named after Ruan Xian.
Ruan Zhan7 (ca. 281 - ca. 310)
Son of Ruan Xian. Van Gulik, Lore, p.158, relates a story from
Gu Qin Shu in which his willingness to play qin for anyone is contrasted favorably with the attitude of Dai Kui. He is also discussed in QSCB,
Chapter 3.A. (p.25)
Giles (Yüan Chan) has the following:
He was exceedingly pure and simple-minded, and found his chief pleasure in playing the (qin). About the year 310 he was secretary in the establishment of the Heir Apparent. He held the belief that there are no such things as bogies, and was one day arguing the point rather warmly with a stranger, when the latter jumped up in a rage and cried out "I am a bogy myself!" The stranger then assumed a hideous shape, and finally vanished. Ruan Zhan was greatly upset by this, and died within the year.
Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a
separate page)
1.
Ruan Ji 阮籍
See 42492.94. The Qin Shi table of contents says 三阮 10.xxx, and the article also includes his nephew, 阮咸 Ruan Xian and Ruan Xian's son, 阮瞻 Ruan Zhan. See Xu Jian QSCB, Chapter 3.A. (p. 26).
See also Donald Holzman, Poetry and Politics, The Life and Work of Juan Chi (A.D. 210 - 263). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1973.
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2.
12 lines
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3.
Detail of a brick relief from a Nanjing tomb.
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4.
Ruan Ji's Yue Lun 樂論
DeWoskin, Song, p.116, has a quote from this book. It begins,
A traveler appeared in Zhao carrying a qin from which qi issued forth. When its sounds entered the ears of listeners, their feet and hands would fly and flap about, and they would lose all normal sense....
Ronald Egan, Controversy, p. 8, has another quote from Yue Lun:
(When Emperor Shun, r. 126-144, passed by Fanqu, outside of Luoyang, "he heard birds singing there and was 悲 bei ('moved' or 'melancholy'). with tears streaming down his face, he said, 'How fine are the birds' songs.' He had his attendants intone the sounds in imitation and observed, 'Wouldn't it be pleasurable if stringed instruments could play like that?'"
Egan further comments that the songs of birds cannot actually be "sad" (for further on this meaning of bei see under Mozi Bei Ge).
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5.
Ruan Xian 阮咸 (210 - 263)
42492.36/2 discusses the person. /1 concerns the instrument (see next).
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6.
Ruan 阮
42492/4 says 月琴也，阮咸之省稱 "same as yue qin (moon lute), short for ruanxian". 42492.36 has a picture and a lengthy description
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7.
Ruan Zhan 阮瞻
42492.94 has an image.
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Return to QSCB,
or to the Guqin ToC.