There are moments in history when the world does not simply change-it becomes difficult to believe in.

For Jiahao Shen, an independent history researcher specializes in medieval Chinese intellectual thought, the Wei-Jin period represents precisely such a moment. In his reading of Ruan Ji and Ji Kang, what emerges is not merely an intellectual movement, but a deeply human response to the collapse of meaning itself. Born and raised in Shanghai, educated in the United States, and currently pursuing postgraduate studies in World History and Philosophy at King’s College London, Shen approaches this period with a sensitivity to both its historical specificity and its unsettling familiarity.