Writers › Writer / Poet
Ruan Yu
One of the Seven Scholars of Jian'an from Weishi, a pupil of Cai Yong who drafted Cao Cao's correspondence and father of Ruan Ji
In a study at night, a desk holds a brush pot, a porcelain vase with a plum branch, a lit red lantern, a folded fan and an unrolled blank scroll, with no one seated there, while through a round window the moon rises over a lake with a sailboat.
Also known as Ruan Yuanyu · Yuanyu
- Roles
- Writer / Poet
Ruan Yu, courtesy name Yuanyu, from Weishi in Chenliu, was a writer of the late Eastern Han and one of the Seven Scholars of Jian'an. In youth he studied under Cai Yong. Summoned by Cao Cao, he drafted much of the military correspondence with Chen Lin, and later served as aide in the chancellor's granary office. He excelled in memorials and letters, writing quickly and without revision, and his poem Driving out of the North Gate tells of an orphan ill-treated by a stepmother. He died in 212. His son Ruan Ji and grandson Ruan Xian were among the Seven Worthies of the Bamboo Grove.
Life and times
Dates 165 - 212