The Study Of Ruan Family In Chenliu County In Wei And Jin Dynasties

The Ruan family had a special place in the medieval period. It belonged to the "newly established families", which did not have a great fame and important official position in Han Dynasty. In Wei, Jin, and Southern Dynasty, however, the political position and fame of Ruan family of Chen Liu increased drastically. In a history of200years,9generations containing33family members of Ruan were recorded in those classical works, and there were10men who had their own autobiographies. According to history, only one of those33men achieved nothing, and the other30men all had experiences of being officials.In Wei and Jin period, celebrities came forth in large numbers from Ruan family. From Zhulin literati’s empty talks to Zhongchao literati’s recklessness, members of Ruan family took part in the two actively. Moreover, Ruan Ji was followed by the free school. The poems of Ruan Ji and his father Ruan were the most tragical of the works of Yu Seven Writers of the Chien-an Period and Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove. They used the poems full of worries expressed difficulties they had encountered-including the worries about uncertainties in life and the disappointment toward politics. They pretended to be happy via wild drinking, and behaved recklessly to confront the earthly society, expressing their disagreement toward the thoughts of Confucianism the mockery toward those men of etiquette. Behind their reckless behaviors, however, the consciousnesses of tragedy were hidden-containing both the doubts of the way of heaven and the negation of earthly issues.The thesis falls into two chapters. Chapter1researches the origin and development of Ruan family of Chen Liu, and it is divided into two sections. The first section introduces the origin of Ruan family and the records related to Ruan family in Qin and Han Dynasties, and the second section researches the pedigree of the Ruan family in Eastern Han, Wei, Jin, Qi, and Liang dynasties in detail. Chapter2mainly discusses the tragic consciousness among the major members of Ruan family, which is divided into four sections. In the first section, the author deals with the contemporary dilemmas encountered by Ruan family and their own predicaments-political turmoil, social norm crisis, fragility, and their cleverness and intelligence. From the second section to the forth section, the author introduces the tragic consciousness of Ruan Yu, Ruan Ji and other members of Ruan family respectively and also figures out the differences of the tragic consciousness among the four generations. The fifth section presents the fact that Ruan family released their sorrow by the way of drinking alcohol, behaving absurdly, writing poems, talking about philosophy, living in seclusion, playing Qin, chess, making friends and chatting tranquilly.