Preserving Life And Saving From Damage,Experiencing The World Freely And Smartly

This article tries to restore and research Ruan Ji's original psychology from the point view of "humanity", which breaks the fetter of traditional opinions, and abandons the convention of replacing historic judgment with moral judgment. This article analyses the political, ideological and cultural background of Ruan Ji's age, and points out that the forming of Ruan Ji's psychology is closely related to his age and individual life experience. During Wei and Jin period, the social politics was in extreme disorder, the humanity awareness was awoken, Metaphysical thoughts prevailed, and the life and political attitude of the whole scholar group was greatly changed. As the spiritual leader of the scholar circle of the time, Ruan Ji was confronted with extremely sinister living conditions. He tried to preserve his life in such a chaotic situation, and to find a way to save himself from damage and experience the world freely and smartly; he searched hard for a "paradise" of mind and spirit, in order to achieve reclusion by "being a government official", processing with the world and achieving reclusion "in the world". But in such an age and society, he could not really make it. Though trying his best to face the reality, he could not overcome hesitation and pain all his life. The confusion that Ruan Ji was confronted with was the confusion of the age, and his hesitation was the hesitation that was commonly shared by the scholars of the time; he presented a complex psychology of confusion, pursuit, hesitation, bewilderment and pain that an ordinary individual has in a chaotic age. But because of Ruan Ji's social status, character and spiritual belief, his confusion, hesitation and struggle was deeper than other people of the time. In the chaotic ages similar to Wei and Jin, most scholars showed the same suffering and forbearance, therefore Ruan Ji'spsychology has a common humanistic meaning. In addition, such of Ruan Ji's efforts that actually failed in the end provided a referable example to scholars of later time, showing how to handle troubled times and political frustration, and scholars after him gradually established a mature attitude to handle the world. From the great personality ideal of Qin and Han, to Su Shi's mature realistic personality of "basing on Confucianism, leaning on Taoism, and retreating to Buddhism", Chinese scholars experienced a long and rough way of soul, while Ruan Ji's confusion, disillusion, pursuit, hesitation and bewilderment, because of his being in the critical period on this way, has a unique cultural meaning.