At this time, the essayist can be roughly divided into two factions, one is Ruan Ji and Ji Kang, and the other is Wang Bi who makes peace. Ruan Ji is good at arguing, and his adult biographies and other famous articles are rich in meaning and shocking, which is unprecedented. Others, such as On Yi Tong, On Tongliao, On Dazhuang and On Music, mostly expound the artistic conception of Taoism, but their writing style is brilliant, lofty and even odd, or their prose uses rhyme. Ji Kang's prose is eloquent, vivid and sharp, and has novel arguments, such as Treating Cai, which aims at resisting Sima's family by governing Cai. The book "Breaking Up with the Mountain Residence", called "Letters with Friends", is actually a struggle against the rulers, openly "not Tang Wu, but a thin hole"; Difficult to Learn Nature denounces benevolence and righteousness as "smelly", "rotten" and "six meridians are not necessarily the sun". The beauty of analysis is better than that of the previous generation, which has profound inspiration for the discussion prose in the Southern Dynasties. Among the "Seven Sages of Bamboo Forest", Liu Ling has Ode to Wine Virtue, which is similar to Ji Kang in thought and language, but quite similar in style. There are not many articles by Wang He. They distinguished Hyunri profoundly, and their words were profound. Although they are subtle, they are far less impressive than the works of Ji and Ruan.
Li Kang's theory of destiny is also quite famous. The article quotes a large number of historical facts, repeatedly discusses the reasons of life fate, and expounds it in sentences with great momentum and fluent language. "Le Yi" is a masterpiece of the popular theory of historical figures at that time. Chen Shou's History of the Three Kingdoms is the most important historical work in this period, and there are also many successful historical essays, such as Biography of Zhuge Liang and Biography of Hua Tuo. The style of writing is unpretentious, inheriting Historical Records and Hanshu, and enlightening Ye Fan and Shen Yue. Shi Mi's Chen Qingbiao is the best in the preface. His words are sincere, his style is sad, and his feelings run through, and even Jin can't help but be moved by it. Xiang embroidery's preface to thinking of the old is full of emotion, but sad.