Ji Kang / Xi Kang 嵆 康 [Hsi K'ang]

Ji Kang / Xi Kang 嵆 康 [Hsi K'ang]

Ji Kang 嵇康 (223–262 CE), whose original surname was Xi 奚 and whose style name was Shuye 叔夜, hailed from Zhi 銍 county in the principality of Qiao 譙 (present-day Anhui 安徽 province). Prior to moving to Qiao, the Ji family lived in Kuaiji 會稽 (also pronounced Guiji) county. (Chai 2021 p 1)

Xi Kang came from a wealthy family of scholars-officials. His father Xi Zhao 嵇昭 held several high positions. He died when Xi Kang was an infant, and Xi was raised by his elder brother, Xi Xi 嵇喜 (ca. 220–ca. 290), and his mother, née sun 孫. Xi Kang had a strong interest in taoism, the study of which he began at an early age. He eventually became one of the leading spokesmen of his age in favor of taoist quietism as well as the more esoteric aspects of taoism that involved the techniques called yang sheng 養生 or “nurturing life.” (...)
sometime in the 240s, Xi Kang married a princess of the Cao clan, Changle tingzhu 長樂亭主, who is variously identified as a daughter or granddaughter of Cao Lin 曹林 (d. 256), a son of Cao Cao. As a result of his marriage, Xi was appointed langzhong 郎中 (gentleman of the inte- rior). Around 245, he received the honorific title of zhongsan dafu 中散 大夫 (grand master of palace leisure). Thus, he is often referred to as Xi Zhongsan. Xi Kang then moved to shanyang 山陽 (southeast of modern Jiaozuo 焦作 City, Henan, located about 60 km northeast of Luoyang). Xi Kang remained here for most of the rest of his life. it was here that he met with many of his friends for “pure conversation.”
Xi Kang was on especially good terms with a libertine and anti-ritualist named Lü An 呂安 (d. 263), as well as his six companions who belonged to the so-called Bamboo Grove group. Xi Kang was reluctant to serve in government office, and in this respect he differed from his elder brother, Xi Xi, who accepted positions in the sima regime. (..)

Xi Kang’s contempt for conventions and authority eventually led to his death. (...) Xi Kang was taken to the Eastern Market of Luoyang and executed, probably in 262

Xi Kang’s collected works, which went by the title Xi Kang ji 嵇康集, at one time consisted of fifteen juan.sometime between the tang and song, five juan were lost. (..)

Among Xi Kang’s extant writings, there are sixty shi. Thirty are in four-syllable lines, twelve in five-syllable lines, ten in six-syllable lines, and eight in irregular patterns. The dominant theme of his poetry is “escape from the world and its dangers and the quest for a better world, the world of the taoist immortals” (Holzman, “La Poésie de Ji Kang,” 115). (..)
Xi Kang was an accomplished zither player and an expert on music. He wrote a long essay titled “sheng wu ai le lun” 聲無哀樂論 (On the non-emotional nature of music) in which he argues that music has no intrinsic emotion. The emotion is only felt by those who are affected by the music.(..)
Xi Kang had a strong interest in recluses. He compiled the Shengxian gaoshi zhuan zan 聖賢高士傳讚 (Accounts with encomia of sage and worth high-minded gentlemen). (bron: Knechtgens 2014 Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature vol 2 p 1407-1412)

De essays van Ji Kang zijn in het Engels vertaald door Robert G.Henricks 1983 en David Chai 2021:
聲無哀樂論 Music has in it neither Grief nor Joy *
釋私論 On Dispelling Self-Interest
明膽論 On Wisdom and Courage
自然好學論 On the Natural Joy of Learning (met repliek) *
養生論 On Nourishing Life (met repliek en weerwoord) *
宅無吉凶攝生論 Residences Are Not Auspicious or Inauspicious, One Must Assist Life (met repliek en weerwoord)
* partiële vertaling in het Nederlands door Jan de Meyer.

Henricks heeft nog het korte essay: An essay on Kuan and Ts'ai
Jan de Meyer geeft in zijn bloemlezing De weg en de deugd uit 2021 een (partiële) Nederlandse vertaling van. de essays:
- Dispuut over het voeden van het leven,
- Klanken zijn vrij van verdriet en vreugde,
- Dispuut over de spontane liefde voor de studie.

Klassieke teksten

Literatuur

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Ashmore, Robert (2014). The Art of Discourse: Xi Kang’s 'Sound Is Without Sadness or Joy'. In Wendy Swartz, Early Medieval China hst 12, 201-229 *. Columbia University Press

Meer informatie...

Chai, David (2021). Reading Ji Kang's Essays. Routledge. *
ISBN13: 978-0367353636

Meer informatie...

--- (2017). Ji Kang on Nourishing Life. Frontiers of Philosophy in China, 12(1), 38-53. *

Henricks, Robert G. (1983). Philosophy and Argumentation in Third-Century China: The Essays of Hsi K'ang. Princeton University Press. *

--- (1976). Hsi K'ang (223-262): his life, literature and thought.

Meyer, Jan de (2021). De deugd en de weg: Chinese disputen uit de derde en vierde eeuw. Boom. *
ISBN13: 978-9024431038

Meer informatie...

Middendorf, Ulrike (2010). The Sage without Emotion: Music, Mind, and Politics in Xi Kang. In Alan K.L. Chan, Philosophy and Religion in Early Medieval China *. SUNY Press

Owen, Stephen (2017). The Poetry of Ruan Ji and Xi Kang. de Gruyter. *
Translated by Stephen Owen and Wendy Swartz
ISBN13: 978-1501511851

Meer informatie...

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