- published: 08 Apr 2013
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Ruan Ji (Chinese: 阮籍; pinyin: Ruǎn Jí; Wade–Giles: Juan Chi; 210–263) was a poet and musician who lived in the late Eastern Han Dynasty and Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history. He was one of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove. The guqin melody, Jiukuang (酒狂 "Drunken Ecstasy", or "Wine Mad") is believed to have been composed by him.
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 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. It is fair to say that Ruan Ji was born into peril, his time period being the Period of Disunity. Ruan Ji was poetically part of both the poetry of the Jian'an period and the beginning of the Six Dynasties poetry developments. He would embrace the poetic side of what the times offered him, and even managed to avoid many political dangers, turmoils, and snares of his time. The safety of Ruan Ji during his life seems to have been underwritten by his willingness to be labeled a drunk and an eccentric.