Ji Kang

Ji (jī) Kang (223-263), courtesy name Shuye, was born in Qiaojun Zhi (now Suixi County, Anhui Province). Because he served as an official in Cao Wei Zhongsan, he was also called Ji Zhongsan in later generations. Writers, thinkers and musicians of Cao and Wei in the Three Kingdoms. He was one of the "Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove", a literary group in the Wei and Jin Dynasties. He was as famous as Ruan Ji and was also called Ji Ruan. They were both representatives of the literary and ideological circles in the late Wei Dynasty. He fiercely criticized secular norms, advocated conforming to the laws of nature, preserving human nature, and actively promoted the theory of food and health. He had a very high reputation and appeal at the time. Later, he was imprisoned for being involved in the lawsuit of his friend Lu An. The powerful minister Sima Zhao was afraid that the influence of his speech would threaten the Sima family's regime, so he was executed at the suggestion of Zhong Hui. After his death, his ideas and propositions were highly praised in the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Southern Dynasties, and became an important component of metaphysics in the Wei and Jin Dynasties. With the rise of immortal Taoism, Ji Kang himself was transformed into an immortal. Including the "Book of Jin" as the official history, the description of his life and deeds is mixed with quite a lot of supernatural and legendary content. And his quality of insisting on freedom of thought and personality, not pursuing worldly fame and fortune, and sacrificing for the pursuit of justice has been regarded by later generations as one of the representatives of traditional Chinese literati who are honest, upright, and fearless of power.