“越名教而任自然”是嵇康提出的一种观点，可以代表魏晋玄学发展到“竹林”阶段后，在法律思想方面的基本内容，它表示阮籍和嵇康对魏晋名教的态度。名教是魏晋时期的社会治理体系，它注重人的道德名声，而忽视人们的道德自觉，导致当时社会风气的败坏。“自然”则是来自先秦道家的概念，阮籍和嵇康用这个词表示人们应当坚守的自然本性，这种本性既包含了天地万物的和谐状态，也包含了个人生活中的道德自觉。因此，“越名教而任自然”的含义是：超越现实名教对人言行思想的种种束缚，而追求个人生活中自觉的道德态度。这一观念落在法律上则是对魏晋名教礼法的改造尝试，对人性的重新审视，以及对个人道德观的建立与个人道德实践的倡导。这些与西方自然法学观念有许多相通之处，如都强调实在法之上的价值观念，都对人性有深刻的体察等等。

“Get rid of the shackles of Confucian ethics and pursue the realm of nature” is a viewpoint put forward by Ji Kang, which can represent the basic content of legal thought of Wei-Jin Metaphysics after it developed to the " Bamboo Grove " stage (At this stage, the sages represented by Ji Kang and Ruan Ji stayed away from the officialdom and lived in seclusion in the bamboo grove), it embodies Ruan Ji's and Ji Kang's attitude towards the Confucian ethical code in the Wei and Jin Dynasties. The Confucian ethical code formed the social governance system in Wei and Jin Dynasties, it attaches great importance to people's moral reputation while ignoring people's moral consciousness, which leads to the deterioration of the social morality and values at that time. "Nature" comes from the concept of Taoism in the pre Qin period (before 221 B.C. when the First Emperor of Qin united China). Ruan Ji and Ji Kang used this word to express the natural instinct that people should adhere to. This nature instinct contains not only the harmonious state of all things in the world, but also the moral consciousness in personal life. The embodiment of this viewpoint in law is an attempt to reform the rituals and laws of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, a re-examination of human nature, and an advocacy of the establishment of personal morality and personal moral practice, which have much in common with the Western conceptions of natural law, such as an emphasis on values and morality above positive law, a deep appreciation of human nature, etc.