There are many small stories in Nguyen's book that circulate among the people.

Folded wall office

Ruan Ji once visited Dongping in Shandong. One day, he casually told Sima Zhao that he liked the customs and customs there, and Sima Zhao immediately asked him to be an official in Dongping.

Ruan Ji rode a donkey to the Dongping Yamen, and found that the office was separated by layers of walls, and it was inconvenient for officials to communicate with each other, and the work efficiency was extremely low. Ruan Ji then ordered all the walls to be demolished, and the office environment was greatly improved, spacious and bright, and the officials no longer dared to be lazy, and the efficiency was greatly increased. After doing all this, Ruan Ji stayed in Dongping for more than ten days and then rode back to Luoyang on a donkey.

Tearing down the wall and working is the only practical thing that Ruan Ji did in the officialdom for the only time in his life, and Li Bai once wrote a poem and praised:

Ruan Ji is too guarded,

Take a donkey to Dongping.

sentenced to bamboo for more than ten days,

Once the wind is clear.

Drunken refusal

Sima Zhao has always wanted to pull Ruan Zhi, and someone gave him an idea to marry Ruan Zhi and marry Ruan Zhi, Sima Zhao felt that this plan was very good, so he sent someone to Ruan's family to propose marriage, and wanted to marry his daughter as a daughter-in-law.

Ruan Ji knew Sima Zhao's intentions very well, he didn't want to marry this family at all, but he couldn't offend Sima Zhao, so he came up with a trick - "drunk".

He began to drink desperately every day, every day was a drunken sin, not sober, for 60 days, every day, the person who was ordered to come to propose marriage could not open his mouth to him at all, and in the end, he had to return to Sima Zhao, Sima Zhao said helplessly: "Alas, forget it, this drunkard, let him go!" (See "The Book of Jin: The Biography of Ruan")

Whistle teasing

Ruan is fond of spirits and good at playing the piano, and when he drinks and plays the piano, he often whistles, that is, whistles.

According to the "New Language of the World. Qi Yi records: Ruan Ji's whistle can be transmitted hundreds of paces away. Once, Ruan Ji went to visit a real person in Sumen Mountain, and he talked to the real person and stirred up words, but the real person seemed to hear but did not hear, did not make a sound, and did not even move his eyes.

Ruan Ji was helpless, so he simply whistled at the real person, and then the real person opened his mouth: "Please come again." Ruan Ji howled again, and then went down the mountain.

Halfway up the mountain, a beautiful howling sound suddenly echoed in the valley, and Ruan Ji looked up, it turned out to be a real person howling, wonderful and harmonious. Infected by the sound of real people, Ruan Ji wrote the famous "Biography of Mr. Adult".

After the Nguyen nationality, whistle became popular among the young people of the Shi clan.

Blue and white eyes

Ruan Ji doesn't speak often, but he often uses his eyes as props and looks at people with "white eyes" and "blue eyes". Treat those you hate, with white eyes; Treat those you like, with blue eyes. It is said that after his mother died, Ji Kang's elder brother Ji Xi came to mourn, but because Ji Xi was an official in the court, that is, a person of etiquette in the eyes of Ruan Ji, he didn't care about the etiquette during the funeral, so he gave Ji Xi a big eye; Later, Ji Kang came with wine and a piano, and he was overjoyed, and immediately turned from white eyes to blue eyes.

Contempt for the law of propriety

Ruan Ji has always despised etiquette and good wine, and next to his house is the hotel, and the hostess is a young and beautiful daughter-in-law. Ruan Ji often went to eat and drink with Wang Rong, and when he was drunk, he lay down next to others and fell asleep as if nothing had happened, not avoiding suspicion at all. The husband of that family didn't think he had done anything wrong.

During the Wei and Jin dynasties, it was taken for granted that men and women were not close to each other, but Ruan Ji did not pay attention to it at all. Once, his sister-in-law wanted to go back to her parents' house, according to the number of etiquette, there are differences between men and women, and he was not allowed to see her off. Some Taoist scholars pointed at this, and in the face of the gossip and criticism of others, Ruan Ji said: "Confucius and Mencius Rites, what does it have to do with me? Is the etiquette for my generation?"

Another time, he heard that an unmarried daughter next door had died of illness, and he ran to the spirit to cry and mourn despite the world's opinions.

Nguyen was bereaved of his mother

One day, Ruan Ji and his friends were playing chess, suddenly someone came to report the death of his mother, the friend knew that his mother was filial, and urged him to go home quickly, Ruan Ji insisted on playing chess, and then drank three buckets and cried loudly and vomited blood His mother died, he did not make special arrangements for the funeral, his friend Pei Kai came to mourn, but he saw Ruan Ji drunk and lying on the ground, Pei Kai knelt on the ground and cried according to the etiquette, and left after crying, and did not care about Ruan Ji's ignorance of him.

and will be buried, eat a steaming nap, drink two buckets of wine, and then chant the trick, bluntly speak poorly, raise the voice No. 1, because vomit several liters of blood. Destroy the barren bones and perish to the end.

During Ruan Ji's funeral for his mother, he drank wine and ate meat at the banquet of King Wen of Jin (Sima Zhao). He Zeng, the lieutenant of Si Li, was also present, and he said to King Wen: "You are ruling the country with filial piety, but Ruan Ji is attending your banquet during your mother's funeral, drinking wine and eating meat, you should exile him to a remote place and educate him with righteous customs." King Wen said, "The heir is so sad and depressed, you can't share his sorrows, why do you still say that?" Besides, if you are sick during the funeral, you can drink wine and eat meat, which is also in line with the funeral!" Ruan Ji was still drinking wine and eating meat, looking calm. But his disregard for etiquette was recognized by the upper class at the time.

Ruan Jiren is the most complex and the most subtle psychological state in the "Seven Sages of the Bamboo Forest". is not like Ji Kang's character "Junche" who died tragically, nor is it like Shantao, Wang Rong and Xiang Xiu who took refuge in the Sima clan and became a big official. He is not hidden, he is hidden and official, and he also does it, but he does not really do it but perfunctory. Be cautious and condescend to adulthood, compared to Ji Zhongsan, it can be said that he has won the samadhi of "the whole body is far from disaster".

Ruan Ji was drunk to Mingzhi, and Ji Kang went far from being famous; Ruan Ji was drunk to avoid disaster, and Ji Kang was slaughtered by the desperate noise. What happened to those who had gone from different paths was so different!

Politically, he was caught between two political forces, and he survived by a cautious way of avoiding trouble, speaking far-reaching, gathering bamboo forests, and borrowing wine to escape the world. He has always had the ambition to help the world, once climbed Guangwu City, watched the battlefields of Chu and Han Dynasty, and sighed "There is no hero when there is no hero, so that the shaft becomes famous!" Under the influence of his family, he was originally politically biased towards the Cao Wei royal family, and was particularly dissatisfied with the authoritarian behavior of the Sima family. However, since the death of Cao Pi, the power of the Cao Wei family has declined step by step, but the power of the Sima family has gradually become stronger. In this sinister political environment, in order to survive, we have no choice but to adopt the way of protecting ourselves, "or close the door to the scriptures, and do not come out for months; or climb the mountain near the water, forget to return after the day", drunk all day long, silent. Forced by Sima's obscenity, he had to entertain perfunctorily, became an official of Sima's clan, and served as a casual cavalry attendant and infantry captain. It was in this way of behavior that he was able to die a good death. Ruan Ji's political attitude was forced and depressed for him, as we can see from his poems.

From these fragments that record Ruan Ji's words and deeds in "The World Speaks New Words", we can see that Ruan Ji is a person who knows how to survive, although he has great ambitions, but he knows that he changes with the situation, is cautious in his words and deeds, and escapes in drunkenness. Nguyen Ji is a man who despises the law of etiquette, and he opposes not the whole of the law of etiquette, but the unreasonable part of it. Ruan Ji is a person of filial piety, but he is not formal, and uses his own behavior to resist the "false filial piety" of those in power. In short, Ruan Ji is a person who lives in a secular life, but is "hidden in the court", and his seemingly grotesque behavior reflects a true temperament.

(End of chapter)