| During Wei and Jin Dynasties, the Jis’ in Qiao Jun was a renowned clan for great achievements in literature, highly respected all over the country. This paper will present Ji Clan from perspectives such as its family background, friends-making, family culture, family literature, influence and acceptance for posterity.From late Han Dynasty to Three Kingdoms period, the Jis’ moved to Zhi County of Qiao Jun and prospered there. As they attached themselves to the Wei Kingdom, some of its families joined the army and were appointed as officials. Since then they attracted the attention from the public. Liberal arts and martial arts were both emphasized in the family, therefore every generation of the family showed its fortes. Just to name some of them, Ji Xi made his own way in government, Ji Kang had great influence on literary circles, while Ji Shao and Ji Han were accomplished in both liberal and martial arts. When Ji Kang died, no people of the clan was known to the public, therefore the lineage of the clan retained short to some extent.The Ji families were adept at identifying talented people, so they make friends with many people to puy it short, they abide by the principles that to help those with same ambition, to get acquainted with those of an inclination. Friend getting acquainted with in officialdom would be recommended, if he is sagacious, meanwhile they would not affiliate themselves with vicious people.The Ji Clan worshipped the Confucian doctrines, thus they attached great importance to foster gentlemen, thought highly of the harmonious mortal principle and advocated a cautious and pragmatic attitude toward life. At the same time, the atmosphere of studying the theory of Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi prevailed the clan, lots of its members learned Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi. Among them, the most prominent is Ji Kang, who proposed that being natural by getting rid of dogmatism and advocated the static regimen. As for art, music literacy of the Jis’is high, and most of its members were proficient in playing. That’s why the belief that music can develop gracious mind and virtue had been carried on to later generations. The Ji Clan followed the conventions of the culture of Yue State (about494-306BC) which upheld a tradition of chivalry and justice. The tradition was integrated with Confucianism and Taoism, thus forming a unique chivalric tradition of Ji Clan.Works by Ji Xi and Ji Kang during Wei and Jin Dynasties epitomized the literary creation of Ji family. Ji Kang excelled in eloquence, and many of his articles characterized by prose, centered on the topics of metaphysics, Confucianism and music. The themes emerging from poems by Ji Kang were mainly around addressing his friends, giving an account of tours, expressing his ambitions, and wallowing in nostalgia. Those poems showed Ji Kang’s ideals that he pursued all along as well as his criticism against the reality. Sometimes he attacked contemporaries by exalting ancient times. What’s more his poems also related to standing aloof from worldly affairs and visiting immortals. Among all his poems, those with four characters in each line were great accomplishments. The writings of Ji Xi mainly bore directly upon Ji Kang, focusing on kinship themes. As the arrival of Western Jin Dynasty, the subject of Ji Fan’s works mostly covered Confucianism, while Ji Shao were fond of writing political essays and Ji Han tended to record actual events and objects, especially plants. From the abovementioned writers of Ji Clan, we can conclude that they hooted at hypocrisy of that time and called for pragmatism.The total number of Ji Clan’s writings adds up to117, including70poems,47essays and3books. From the angle of style, the works of Ji Kang show the most literary nature. He is accomplished in composing poems and specialized in making intellectual enquiries. Ji Xi remains keen on writing essays which express driving ambitions. Meanwhile Ji Fan shows deep affection in his prose. The diction of Ji Shao’s writing appears careful and pragmatic. Ji Han is expert at describing plants and documenting actual events. From the viewpoint of wording, the literary style of Ji Clan has a preference for parallelism. Rhetorical devices such as parallelism, Fu (descriptive prose interspersed with verse) and Pian (rhythmical prose style, marked by parallelism and ornateness) are widely used. The literary creation of Ji Clan assumes the characteristics that they excel in persuasion, emphasize on deeply family ties and love for plants, edified by the family culture and influenced by family members.The image of Ji Kang gains its acceptance of among underappreciated scholars, degage immortals and fairies. The acceptance of Ji Kang’s literary taste can find in comments and remarks on his prose style, literariness and achievements. The influence of Ji Kang’s literary edification on later generations is mainly manifested in people’s homage to his sophistication in music, calligraphy, painting, forging, and bamboo flute playing etc. Ji Shao advocated complete integrity and loyalty to the king and argued that he served the government with the purpose to take his revenge for his father. Ji Han has always been respected by later generations for his passion for travelling and plants. |
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