Chapter 13 3. Ruan Ji's Drunk

Ruan Ji almost spent his whole life soaked in wine jars. This is not surprising, because drinking is one of the signs of celebrities in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, and there are endless stories about wanting to drink rather than die.For example, there is a man named Bi Zhuo, who is the same official as Shan Tao, but he is from the Eastern Jin Dynasty.One night, he smelled the smell of wine from the government office next door, so he went over the wall to steal the wine, and even drank it with the night watchman who arrested him.In the end, the old man was dismissed from office for drunkenness.

Ruan Ji is much smarter.His solution was to apply to Sima Zhao to be an infantry captain, because the wine at the infantry captain's office was particularly good.Of course, Sima Zhao approved immediately, and Ruan Ji was called "Ruan infantry" because of this. Liu Ling was more like an alcoholic than Ruan Ji.He often asked his servant to follow behind with a hoe, and he took a jug of wine and sat on the deer cart while walking and drinking, and said to the servant: "Where I died drunk, I will be buried there." Xin Qiji's poem "If you are drunk, why don't you just die and bury it" is referring to Liu Ling.

Mrs. Liu, who really couldn't stand it anymore, advised him to quit drinking. Liu Ling said: Very good!But I couldn't control myself, so I had to ask God for help. The wife had no choice but to prepare wine and meat to sacrifice to the gods. But Liu Ling knelt down and prayed: Liu Ling was born with wine as his life.One drink and one Dendrobium (pronounced as Hu, ten Dou), five Dou will cure the disease.How can you listen to what a woman says?So he took the opportunity to eat and drink until he was drunk. Alcoholics can always find an explanation, and so does Liu Ling. This reminds people of Liu Chang (pronounced Ruchang, Liu Chang's word is Gongrong). The characteristic of this man is that he can drink with anyone.What he said was: when you meet someone stronger than me, you have to drink with him.If you encounter someone who is worse than me, I'm sorry not to drink it.If you meet someone similar to me, then you have to drink it even more.

However, Ruan Ji and Wang Rong said otherwise.They said: When you meet someone who is stronger than Gongrong, you have to drink with him.If you encounter something worse than Gongrong, you will be ashamed not to drink it.Only when you meet Gongrong himself, you don't have to drink with him.As a result, at Ruan Ji and Wang Rong's place, Liu Chang couldn't even drink a glass of wine, but the chat and laughter were as lively as before. People like Liu Ling and Liu Chang probably have a pure love for alcohol, while Ruan Ji's alcoholism may have other reasons.A historical fact for reference is: Sima Zhao wanted to marry Ruan Ji, but Ruan Ji was drunk for two consecutive months, so he had to give up.

Therefore, when Sima Zhao added Jiuxi and needed someone to write a persuasion form, Ruan Ji repeated his old trick.It's a pity that everyone didn't let him go this time. After being woken up, Ruan Ji wrote a splendid article in one go.After seeing it, everyone said it was a stroke of genius. Such a magic pen, I am afraid that it has been prepared for a long time, right?Perhaps, Ruan Ji's plan was to hide whenever he could.I really couldn't escape, so I woke up from the wine.He didn't want to make fun of his own life, and really turned his head into a flagon.Marriage is a private matter, and Sima Zhao is too embarrassed to force it.Jia Jiuxi is an official business, how dare Ruan Ji prevaricate?

In this way, he had never been really drunk. Toss it with a peach and return it with a plum.Sima Zhao also gave Ruan Ji the utmost tolerance and even protection.Ruan Ji was impeached for drinking and eating meat during his funeral, but Sima Zhao defended him by saying: You see, he is so sad that he has no human form, why can't we share our worries with him?It is in accordance with the etiquette to drink alcohol when you are sick! But where is Ruan Ji sick?His illness is in his heart.In fact, Ruan Ji, like Ji Kang, was dissatisfied with Sima Zhao's attempt to usurp them in the name of Confucianism, and was extremely contemptuous of those people of etiquette and customs.Therefore, Ruan Ji would also speak wild words like Kong Rong, and even pretend to be astonishing.

Once, Ruan Ji said: It is okay to kill the father, but not to kill the mother. Everyone was shocked. Sima Zhao also said: Killing one's father is a heinous crime, how can it be done? Ruan Ji explained: For example, animals only know their mothers but not their fathers.Therefore, killing one's father is like a beast, and killing one's mother is worse than a beast. Everyone was amazed again. It was not surprising that Ruan Ji spoke like this.In fact, from the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty to the end of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, ethics almost became synonymous with hypocrisy.For example, Huan Wen's youngest son, Huan Xuan, usurped the throne in the end, but he behaved in public as a filial son.Once, a guest asked for warm wine during the banquet, and Huan Xuan burst into tears, because "Wen" was the name of his late father, and he couldn't even mention it.

No wonder Ruan Ji deliberately contradicted the ethics.The proprietress of the hotel near his home was very pretty, so Ruan Ji and Wang Rong often went to the store to buy wine, and slept next to that woman when they got drunk.In this regard, the owner was very suspicious.But after careful observation, he found that Ruan Ji had no evil thoughts at all, so he was relieved. The so-called "adults do not lose their innocence", is it like this? A person with a pure heart may live happily or suffer.Because an adult cannot really be a child, the so-called "childlike" is nothing but willfulness and frankness.Ruan Ji is like this.It is said that he has blue eyes and looks at people who admire him with blue eyes, and gives him white eyes when he doesn't like them.Ji Kang and his elder brother Ji Xi enjoyed these two different treatments at Ruan Ji's place.

However, Ruan Ji, who made no secret of his likes and dislikes, spent his whole life "not criticizing people", that is, he never commented on anyone.Sima Zhao appreciated this very much. He even thought that Ruan Ji was the most cautious person in the world. This is Ruan Ji: straightforward and self-disciplined, straightforward and cautious.Such a person will have knots in his heart.Therefore, some people think that Ruan Ji was so drunk that he used wine to drink up his heart. The same is true of his crying. Ruan Ji should have cried many times in his life.A girl who was neither relative nor old acquaintance died, and he also went to cry bitterly.The reason, it is said, is only because the girl was both talented and beautiful, but died without getting married.This is indeed a very unfortunate life.With Ruan Ji's temperament as a poet and his sensitivity as a philosopher, we cannot but weep for him.

However, he is more likely to cry himself.Thinking about Ruan Ji's life, what is the essential difference between Ruan Ji and that girl?Has his life value really been realized?How many people can understand his hesitant poems?Could the persuasion form he wrote for Sima Zhao be what he wanted to say? No wonder Ruan Ji wants to drive around aimlessly with a pot of wine in a car like Liu Ling.The difference is that Liu Ling ordered "bury me when you die", but Ruan Ji must go to the end of the road and return weeping. No one can know for sure what they're thinking.Perhaps, Liu Ling has clearly realized that no matter how he spends his life, he will eventually die.So why not count where you go, and bury where you die?Similarly, since life is meaningless, why not live as you want?

So Liu Ling is more mad than Ruan Ji.Once a friend went to see him, but found him sitting there completely naked.Friends were very surprised, but Liu Ling was very calm.He said nonchalantly: "The world is my house, and the house is my clothes. Why do you all walk into my pants?" This is really crazy talk. In fact, Liu Ling is not crazy.He understands better than anyone else in his heart, and he cherishes his life very much.There was a quarrel with someone after drinking, and the other party rolled up his sleeves and was about to strike, and the thin and thin Liu Ling immediately gave in.What he said was: I am afraid that these chicken ribs of mine are not worthy of your noble fist. Of course the other party laughed it off. In fact, this is also Liu Ling's way of life.For the Sima regime, he did not openly confront the Sima regime like Ji Kang, nor did he compromise like Ruan Ji. Instead, he talked about nothingness when he was recruited, making the ruler feel that he was useless.So Liu Ling's final outcome was to die. Ruan Ji has been struggling in pain.It is said that when he watched Liu Bang and Xiang Yu's Chu-Han battlefield, he once said a famous saying: There are no heroes in the time, so that Zhuzi became famous.It can be seen that he believes that there must be heroes, and he also hopes to find a way out for the era without heroes.He cried when he was at the end of his way, because he found that the result of searching up and down was that he still didn't know where the road was. We don't know either. But it is certain that it will not be in Tao Yuanming's garden.