Ji Hu

J. Hu, also known as Ji Hu, although his full name is unknown, was a philosopher, that lived during the Zhou Dynasty and he is quite unknown outside the region of Anhui. He was convinced that China will fall in darkness when "the water and the ground flow in the light".

Biographical notes

J. Hu is believed to come from a family of poor farmers in Anhui, and since he was very young he showed an unusual intelligence and ambition. Owing to this, he married the daughter of a rich merchant and had a son with her, pretending that he was a powerful landowner. During some years he lived from her money, and he dedicated himself to his most beloved subject, philosophy.

But his deception was eventually found out, and he was forced to escape to Hao, then the imperial capital. There, he tried to expose his revolutionary thoughts about life, which were brutally rejected. Soon he was poor again, and in his frustration he left the city, resolving to live as a hermit the rest of his life.

He returned to his home town, where he dedicated all of his time to meditation. It is said that one day, while he was eating a bowl of rice given to him by a farmer, he reached enlightenment, and saw that his quest was pointless. In his words: "The only thing worth achieving is the end of the achievement itself: noble ignorance"

Then he found his son and convinced him to become his disciple, who managed to bring more people to his father. His hermetic style was sometimes annoying to his more ignorant disciples, and one of them even left J. Hu blind with his own fingers, trying to make him abandon his philosophy. The old master supposedly said: "The fool cannot take the true eyes of truth, so the sage still can see the path" Over the years, most of his followers abandoned him.

J. Hu died when his roof fell over him during a storm, alone and forgotten. The only records of his existence come from his son's notes. The exact date of his death is unknown, although he is believed to have lived between fifty or sixty years.