Ruan Ji
As is traditionally depicted, the group wished to escape the intrigues, corruption and stifling atmosphere of court life during the tail end of the politically fraught Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history and into the early period of the newly established Jin dynasty. According to tradition, the members, Liu Ling (221–300), Ruan Ji (210–263), Ruan Xian (fl. 3rd century), Xiang Xiu, Wang Rong (234–305) and Shan Tao (205–283) gathered in a bamboo grove near the house of Xi Kang (aka Ji Kang) (223–262), in Shanyang (now in Henan province) where they enjoyed, and praised in their works, the simple, rustic life. Modern criticism suggests that these gatherings may have been to some extent virtual. Either way, this way of living was contrasted with the life of politics at court. The Seven Sages stressed the enjoyment of ale, personal freedom, spontaneity and a celebration of nature. The various 7 sages had their own specialties. However, they shared philosophical discussion, musical production, and drinking. Burton Watson considers Ruan Ji (whose name he transcribes as Juan Chi) to be the "first important poet" following the Jian'an poetry style. Ruan Ji helped to define the Six Dynasties poetic development of the themes of reclusion and friendship. He helped to develop the five-character "shi" poetry form which had just newly developed with the Jian'an poets, but he moved it away from its initial starkly realistic descriptions of particular scenes which could be right before the poets' eyes towards more generalized, abstract, and symbolic poetic statement. Ruan Ji also developed the nature theme, focusing on "the passing of time and the cycle of the seasons", which lead towards the death of the individual. Ruan Ji was also used to deploy the imagery of birds as symbols of freedom and ability to escape their given situation. Burton Watson further notes the evident lack of the imagery of wine in Ruan's surviving poems. Not that he was unacquainted with it, even recorded as having remained continuously drunk for 2 months to avoid an undesirable marriage which was urged upon him with great political pressure such that he could not overtly refuse.