Hsi K'ang was one of the famed Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, a group of thinkers and poets who, in the middle of the third century, met in a bamboo grove in Shan-yang, near Hsi's home in the north of present-day Honan, to discuss philosophy, drink wine, and write poetry. These men were all great eccentrics, and many anecdotes regarding their antics have survived. It is probable, however, that some of their "madness" was feigned in an effort to avoid involvement in the treacherous politics of their day, in which court intrigues often led to swift reprisal and death.
Hsi K'ang, one of the most talented of the Seven Sages, was a man of haughty character who scorned all social niceties and Confucian formalities but upheld an exacting standard in friendship. Besides being a great rhapsodic fu fu writer and poet, he was also a virtuoso on the lute and a keen practitioner of Taoism. Under a large tree in his garden, he set up a forge, where he experimented with alchemy in the hopes of discovering a Taoist elixir of immortality.
Because of his intellectual gifts, he was several times approached about participating in government, but he always refused. When his friend Shan T'ao "compromised his principles" by accepting a high office and even had the effrontery to suggest that Hsi become his assistant, Hsi wrote a famous open letter breaking off relations with him. This letter ridiculed court practices and the hypocrisy of social life. When the Grand Marshall, Duke of Chin read it (shortly before he overthrew the Wei dynasty to set up his own regime), he detected veiled insults aimed at himself, and shortly afterward arrested Hsi K'ang on a trumped-up charge of committing treason against the state. In prison Hsi wrote some sad farewell verses entitled "Dark Desperation," expressing his longing for life and freedom. Although a petition signed by 3,000 students begging for Hsi's release was presented to the court, it was rejected by the duke, and in 262 he was se