Xi Kang

Names
Also transcribed as:	Ji Kang
Chinese :	嵇 康
Hanyu Pinyin :	Xī Kāng
Wade-Giles :	Hsi K'ang
Family name:	Xi
Traditional Chinese :	嵇
Given	names
Major Age Name (Zì 字)  :	叔夜 , Shūyè
Pseudonym (Hào 号)  :	中散大夫 , Zhōngsàn Dàifu

Xī Kāng ( Chinese  嵇 康 , now also transcribed as Jí Kāng; also known as 叔夜 , Shūyè and as 中散大夫 , Zhōngsàn Dàifu ; * 223 in the state of Wei ; † 262 ) was a poet, philosopher and musician in the politically explosive Three Kingdoms Era . He devoted himself to a withdrawn, contemplative life, which he hoped to extend to several hundred years through proper nutrition and lifestyle, but which he did not succeed: at the age of 40 he was executed.

As an important musician and composer, he wrote about the Qin composition ( 琴 赋 , Qínfù ) and about the meaning and nature of music ( 声 无 哀乐 论 , shēng wú āilè lùn  - "the music is without sadness and joy"), he dealt with but also with Daoist practices of life extension ( 养生 论 , yǎngshēng lùn ) and many other topics.

In Chinese historiography, he is mostly considered an enfant terrible and immoral opponent of Confucius in the history of ideas. Indeed, in his works he advocated giving priority to one's own intellect over evidence of authority in the form of anecdotal stories of Chinese greats, which were traditionally used as the main means of argumentation, and questioned the credibility of such traditions. Nevertheless, he also invoked quotes from Confucian texts to give his points of view more weight.

Xi Kang is one of the Seven Wise Men from the Bamboo Grove .

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• 熊 治 祁 ， 张桂喜 ， 徐 炼 ， 朱海燕 : 乱世 四大 文豪 合集 注 译 . 南海 文艺 出版社 , 1996, pp. 925–959. (Original texts - poems and essays - in abbreviations with annotation and translation into modern Chinese)
• Robert G. Henricks: Philosophy and Argumentation in Third-Century China - The Essays of Hsi K'ang. Princeton University Press, 1983. (English translation of the essays with helpful comments)
• Robert G. Henricks: Hsi K'ang (223-262): His Life, Literature and Thought. UMI Dissertation Services, Ann Arbor 1976. (Reprint of 2006 Microfilm) (Detailed and insightful introduction to Xi Kang's life and thought)