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.郭丹資深影視人、名媛、暢銷書作家。代表作包括最佳外語小說獎獲得作品《別愛蘇黎世》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.

竹林七賢里，我最喜歡嵇康。理由很簡單，因為他帥。當時的人說他“巖巖若孤松之獨立”。我心想，這不免太瘦了。但是他喝醉以后呢，別人又說他“傀俄若玉山之將崩”。我心想，那可以，真的美。見過他的人都贊其“爽朗清舉”“龍章鳳姿”。男人互相吹捧也可能就還好，但寫《后漢紀》的史學家袁弘，他的太太李氏見到嵇康也說：“風勛劭邈，有似明月之映幽夜，清風之過松林也?！?/p>

嵇康還有許多其他優點。首先是音樂方面，《廣陵散》經他改寫才從正常歌曲變成“聲調絕倫”；文學方面，黃庭堅說他的詞“豪壯清麗，無一點塵俗氣”。這倒是和他的為人一樣。

大家對嵇康死前的故事都不會陌生。行刑當天，嵇康的三千太學生赴刑場請愿免他一死。嵇康死前當著他們的面彈千古名曲，讓人動容吧。

嵇康的一生里好像什么也沒做，他甚至努力地啥也不做。他喜老莊，追求不刻意，無為人生，說自己要“目送歸鴻，手揮五弦。俯仰自得，游心太玄”。但就靠著天賜的一切，他也能被命運推著走到留名千古。

這真是羨慕不來的人生啊。