The Seven Worthies of the Bamboo Grove

Abstract

Although Shan Tao, Ruan Ji, Xiang Xiu, Liu Ling, Ji Kang, Ruan Xian, and Wang Rong were historical figures, their identity as a group of like-minded iconoclasts who flouted Confucian ideology and norms of behavior has been questioned in modern scholarship. Even their epithet Zhulin qixian (The Seven Worthies of the Bamboo Grove), as some scholars argued, was retrospectively coined. This chapter argues that not only were the Seven Worthies historical figures in the third century, but they were also famously known by their epithet in their own time. Further, the political significance of their domicile in Shanyang District is explained. Yet the Seven Worthies were not a homogenous group because their political aspirations and philosophical inclinations were quite diverse and dissimilar, as the analysis of the philosophical thinking of Ruan Ji, Ji Kang, and Xiang Xiu in this chapter demonstrates.