Ming Literature I

Literature of the Late Ming (1573-1644) Pg. 63-82

The Late Ming dynasty is know for it's vast amounts of cuirculated Literatrue. In face this is one of tthe first time where there is a division of wrtitten material that is literature and is no considered literature. be fore the Ming any possible manuscript found is considered literature but since so much of the ming dynasty literature is still extanct experts can chose what is literature and what is not. The time was split into three eras the Jiajing and Longqing (1521-1572), and the Wanli (1573-1620).

The Major factor effecting literature at this time was Book production. books were being produced at a Rate that had never been witnessed in Human hisotry. The same time in Europe Printing was also functioning yet China Could make Paper much easier. Becuase of this literarly everone had acsses to books. Even the porr could afoord books. This lead to vast librarys of 10,000 chapters. In Europe at the time a Library of 20 book would seem enourmous though not in China. some men such as Hu yinglin and Mao jing had over 84,000 chapters in thier library. Most of the printed material where Classics, histories, philosophy, belles-letteres (assorted works). Also religous groups were distributing literature in high volumes amoung the most popular works at the time were Precious scrolls (baojuan), and Morality books (shanshu). The Centers of publishing during the Ming were, Nanjing and Jian Yang. Also becuase of the vast Amount of Literature being distributed large amounts of Women where becoming literate and Literature was beingg written by Women.

Because books became extremely Common place Authors began adding elaborate Picture and began signing their names in the books, also color printing became quite popular. Also during this time Authors were publishing books duringg thier lives and could become famous during thier life time. A near first for most of Chinese literary history.

The cultural center of the Ming During this time was an area know as Jiangnan. When most of us think of the fantastical China we Think of Jiannan. It was a place of mass commerce, home of Xue Susu one of the eight famous courtesans of the Ming, filled with Courtesans, artist, and writers. The Fashion trends of the time was not dictated by Beijing but by Jiangnan.

Also during the late Ming you had Literary societies arising. Theses were formed mainly for the comon love off literary and ideologies yet being part of a scoiety had advantages. Societies were compliling Essays from the imperial exams and could help thouse who had not yet taken them. The exams had become increasingly hard and had a passing rate of around 3%. yet members of the Revival litterary Society could recieve help from other members and had an average rate of 18% passing.

Lastly during this time came the extremely Radical Author Li Zhi, he was known forr his forward thinking and was against many of the views of confucius. While Confucius Belived in self cultivation Li Zhi believed in the inherent good already in people and the Way we should be Innocent like Children with instinctive morals. he was very anachronistic for his time, and was very contrvesial. He was Arested for heredoxy and while in prison he Slit his throat.