Ruan Xian

Ruan Xian (fl. 3rd century), courtesy name Zhongrong, was a Chinese scholar who lived in the Six Dynasties period. One of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, he was a skilled player of the Chinese lute, an old version of pipa which has been called ruan after his name since the Tang dynasty. His achievement in music reached such high as to be described as "divine understanding" in the Book of Jin. Ruan Xian had a Xianbei slave who gave birth to his son, Ruan Fu.