The Era of Division 41
both boring and immoral. He said he preferred to avoid the hypocri-
sies of the court and to enjoy instead the freedoms of private life and
the beauties of nature far from the pressures of high politics. When a
friend of his accepted an offi cial position and wrote to Ji Kang to sug-
gest that he might do likewise, he replied with a blistering attack on
offi cialdom. He concluded his letter: “All I want now is to remain in
my old hut, bring up my children and grandchildren, take a stroll from
time to time with old friends, drink a glass of wine, and play a melody
on my lute. That is the sum of my ambition.”^3 His letter found its way
into the hands of the Duke of Jin, who had hired Ji Kang’s friend, and
the duke was so offended by its implicit attack on offi cial circles that he
sentenced Ji Kang to death in 262. Three thousand of his students and
followers signed a petition to the duke asking him to pardon Ji Kang,
but to no avail. From prison Ji Kang wrote of his desire to survive but
also made clear his contempt for his persecutors. On his way to the
gallows, he watched the lengthening shadows of the sun and played a
mournful tune on his lute.
Another leader of this group was Ji Kang’s good friend Ruan Ji,
who wrote haunting poems that extolled the beauties of nature, called
for naturalness and spontaneity over sterile rituals, and satirized the
immoral behavior of many Confucian scholars in his own time. When
he was chastised by someone for walking in public with his own sister-
in-law (because men and women were not to be seen together in public
even if they were closely related), he replied, “Surely you don’t mean to
suggest that the rules of [Confucian] propriety apply to me!”^4 Another
of the Seven Sages, Liu Ling, once appeared stark naked at the door of
his home to greet some visitors. Seeing the shocked look on their faces,
he explained, “Heaven and earth are my dwelling and this room is my
pants. Who asked you gentlemen to come inside my pants? And where’s
the harm anyway?”^5
In such a dangerous age, when rulers fought constant wars and
frequently executed offi cials and citizens even for minor offenses, many
began to question the Confucian principle that a good man’s fi rst duty
was to serve the state.^6 The trends of nonconformity, withdrawal from
government service, and new interest in the values of the early Dao-
ist philosophers and the later Daoist religious movements all helped
provide fertile soil for the rise of Buddhism in China. The arrival of
Buddhism was easily the most momentous of all the changes during the
long period of division.
Compared with most world religions, the original teachings of the
Buddha are unique in that he performed no miracles, believed in no