Mystical Learning is a form of Neo-Taoism effused with Confucianism. It dominated several important social circles during the Wei-Jin dynastic periods, including the Seven Worthies of the Bamboo Grove, a loose association of musical philosophers. One of these Seven Worthies, Ruan Ji, adopted the pure talk form of debate through the rhetoric of written assertions. Ruan's most convincingly authenticated work, Essay on Music, emerged in this setting during the first half of the third century. Essay on Music passionately advocates a return to traditional notions of propriety. It is a fundamentally subversive work, pointing out the licentious behavior of those then in power. Commenting shrewdly on the corrupt practices of his day, Ruan leans on the authority of legendary stories to prove his thesis. Essay on Music begins by evaluating third century society's adherence to traditional Confucian values, as laid out by the Book of Rites, and concludes with a discussion of the interplay between emotion and song throughout history. Part of a larger dialogue among the Seven Worthies of the Bamboo Grove, Essay on Music and other discourses on the emotive content in music explore the contemporaneous fascination with the connection between human sentiment and the cosmic relationship of heaven and earth.