Fu Yi, who describes Ruan Ji as a connoisseur of ancient essays, mentioned that the "poet was diligently engaged in sciences" and read books until nightfall. This quiet solitude and obsession in perceiving the knowledge of the ancients was his hidden source of inspiration. Ruan Ji widely opened the way to court honour but he never hid his despise of the careerist attitudes of officials. One of his biographers told: "initially Ji tried to improve the world, but lived on the Wei and Jin boundary. In China there were few Junzi who preserved themselves. Because of that Ji abandoned his affairs, and was intoxicated all the time."