Writers › Writer / Poet
Ouyang Jian
Western Jin writer and philosopher from Nanpi in Bohai, courtesy name Jianshi, one of the Twenty-Four Friends of Golden Valley, author of the Yan jin yi lun, killed in 300.
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 Jianshi
Ouyang Jian, courtesy name Jianshi, was from Nanpi in Bohai, a maternal grandson of Shi Bao and nephew of Shi Chong. He served as secretariat gentleman and Grand Administrator of Fengyi and was one of the Twenty-Four Friends of Golden Valley. He was killed by Sima Lun, Prince of Zhao, in the War of the Eight Princes, and wrote a farewell poem before his death. His Yan jin yi lun argued that words can fully express meaning, against the Neo-Daoist view that they cannot, and is preserved in Yiwen leiju 19. He was born around the 260s and died in 300.
Life and times
Dates Born unknown; died 300 CE