Talent of the Bamboo Grove

Text by Guo Dan Translation by Susi Yuan Illustration by Nan Fang

Talent of the Bamboo Grove

Text by Guo Dan Translation by Susi Yuan Illustration by Nan Fang

Ji Kang is my favorite among the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove. The reason is pretty simple - he is handsome. People of his time described that he stood still like a lonely pine tree. For me, it is too thin. But when he got drunk, people said he was like a collapsing jade mountain. Then I think that is quite beautiful. People who had met him all spoke highly of his passion and elegance. It is normal that men would compliment each other, but the wife of the famous historian Yuan Hong, writer of The Chronicles of the Late Han Dynasty, also commented him as ‘the moon shining in the silent night, the breeze stirring the bamboo grove'.

Kallen GuoSenior filmmaker, socialite and bestselling author, authored Don't Fall in Love with Zurich, the winner of The Best Foreign Language Novel.郭丹资深影视人、名媛、畅销书作家。代表作包括最佳外语小说奖获得作品《别爱苏黎世》等。

Ji Kang had many other virtues. First of all is his aesthetic taste of music. With his recomposition, the Song of Guangling was transferred from a normal work into an eternal masterpiece. His literature accomplishment was also highly recognised. Huang Tingjian described his poems as ‘glorious and fresh', just like his personality.

People are quite familiar with the story about Ji Kang's death. On the day of execution, three thousand students petitioned to exempt him from death penalty. Ji Kang played his masterpiece in from of them, which paints a very emotional scene.

It seems that Ji Kang did nothing in his life. He even tried hard to do nothing. He believed in Taoism, pursued spontaneity and effortless life. But he still left his name in the history because of his talent given by God.

竹林七贤里，我最喜欢嵇康。理由很简单，因为他帅。当时的人说他“岩岩若孤松之独立”。我心想，这不免太瘦了。但是他喝醉以后呢，别人又说他“傀俄若玉山之将崩”。我心想，那可以，真的美。见过他的人都赞其“爽朗清举”“龙章凤姿”。男人互相吹捧也可能就还好，但写《后汉纪》的史学家袁弘，他的太太李氏见到嵇康也说：“风勋劭邈，有似明月之映幽夜，清风之过松林也。”

嵇康还有许多其他优点。首先是音乐方面，《广陵散》经他改写才从正常歌曲变成“声调绝伦”；文学方面，黄庭坚说他的词“豪壮清丽，无一点尘俗气”。这倒是和他的为人一样。

大家对嵇康死前的故事都不会陌生。行刑当天，嵇康的三千太学生赴刑场请愿免他一死。嵇康死前当着他们的面弹千古名曲，让人动容吧。

嵇康的一生里好像什么也没做，他甚至努力地啥也不做。他喜老庄，追求不刻意，无为人生，说自己要“目送归鸿，手挥五弦。俯仰自得，游心太玄”。但就靠着天赐的一切，他也能被命运推着走到留名千古。

这真是羡慕不来的人生啊。