Concept
Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove
Overview
The Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove (also known as the Seven Worthies of the Bamboo Grove, traditional Chinese: 竹林七賢; simplified Chinese: 竹林七贤; pinyin: Zhúlín Qī Xián; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tiok-lîm Chhit Hiân) were a group of Chinese scholars, writers, and musicians of the third century CE. Although the various individuals all existed, their interconnection is not entirely certain. Several of the seven were linked with the Qingtan school of Daoism as it existed in the state of Cao Wei.
The Seven Sages found their lives to be in danger when the avowedly "Confucian" Jin dynasty of the Sima clan came to power. Among other things, some of the seven wrote poems criticizing the court and the administration, and wrote Daoist-influenced literature. Not all seven sages had similar views. Some of the seven tried to negotiate their way through the difficult political positions by self-consciously adopting the roles of alcohol-fueled pranksters and eccentrics avoiding government control (for example, Liu Ling), yet some ended up joining the Jin dynasty (for example Wang Rong). However much they may or may not have been personally engaged in "witty conversation or debates" (qingtan), they became the subjects of it themselves in the A New Account of the Tales of the World (Chinese: 世說新語; pinyin: Shìshuō Xīnyǔ).
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
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These live by hunting; and bordering upon them there are settled also in these same regions men who are called Irycai, who also live by hunting, which they practise in the following manner:—the hunter climbs up a tree and lies in wait there for his game (now trees are abundant in all this country), and each has a horse at hand, which has been taught to lie down upon its belly in order that it may make itself low…
Herodotus, The History of Herodotus — Volume 1
States what Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove is.
When it has been taken round, immediately it disappears; and every year it thus comes forth once. The country is very productive, and the people are prosperous, and happy beyond comparison. When people of other countries come to it, they are exceedingly attentive to them all, and supply them with what they need.
Confucius, Chinese literature
Close in meaning to Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove; the term itself is not named.
The Italic school had for its founder Pythagoras of Samos, to whom also the term "philosophy" is said to owe its origin. For whereas formerly those who seemed to excel others by the laudable manner in which they regulated their lives were called sages, Pythagoras, on being asked what he professed, replied that he was a philosopher, that is, a student or lover of wisdom; for it seemed to him to be the height of…
of Hippo Augustine, The City of God, Volume I
Close in meaning to Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove; the term itself is not named.
Philosophers who discussed Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove
Related ideas
Place in the tradition
Part of Chinese philosophy.
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