Ming literature

After Yongle

In the decades after Yongle, Beijing was still the symbol of the dynasty’s prestige and authority. The fu writings share their eulogistic tones with those from the beginning of the century. The authors claimed that “the imperial majesty of Beijing was a living emblem of the Heavenly mandate of the Great Ming, an empire that would endure for ‘tens of thousands of years’ and under which China was once again the center of the universe.”

This claim died in 1449 when Yingzong Emperor (who was 21 at the time) was taken prisoner by the Mongols at the Battle of Tumu. He was returned a year later but by then his brother already replace him as the emperor. In 1457 he was restored to the throne but he was caught in way-to-complicated court politics and died 8 years later, and then his 16-year-old son became the Chenghua Emperor.

Due to this whole incident, the Chinese became more worried about being attacked by the Mongols and spent lots of money and manpower to build the Great Wall.

Politics, culture, and education

Because politics and culture are inversely proportional to each other, as the military shrunk, literature expended. After Yingzong’s capture, more writers and scholar-officials began to write political criticisms. It was kind of life-risking and men in public life were never free from political persecution. Many received court beatings and were sent into exile, which led to the shift in the power center in literature from imperial court to individual writers.

One of the causes of this shift is that the mid-Ming emperors were supporters of educational and cultural activities so they made policy changes in the school system, which included creating a new rank for teachers called tixue guan and expanding the schools. By the early 16th century, 244,300 students were enrolled in school.

New perspective on place

One of the things that went through significant changes was the fu. Before, many early Ming scholar-officials wrote fu that praised Beijing. During middle Ming, the contents of fu changed somewhat. In “Fu on Beijing,” Huang Zuo used animals such as foxes and rats to represent the corrupt officials in the capital. In “An Extraordinary View Seen from the Outskirts of the South Sea” by Qiu Jun, the poet says that Hainan Island is more beautiful than all other places on Earth. There were also other fu describing the customs and rituals of the local people.

Compared to the fu from before, the fu of mid-Ming was more expressive and rich in descriptive imagery but realistic at the same time.

New perspective on place

There were also fu about foreign travels.

Dong Yue was an ambassador to Korea under Hongzhi Emperor and he wrote about geographical and social discourse: Korea’s geographical conditions, locations of its cities, agricultural produce, and history of Korean trade with China. Trade = respect to the Chinese empire. He said that the virtues of Korean women were influence by the Chinese culture.

Zhan Ruoshui wrote about how China cultivated the minds of the “barbarian” people of Annam and related the Chinese cultural influences back to mythological figures.

Drama, vernacular lyrics, and popular song culture

Except for Hongzhi Emperor, the other mid-Ming emperors were rather incompetent and were manipulated by the eunuchs. However, they all supported the song culture. It was said that the popular songs, such as the “Wu Songs” and “Hanging Branch,” that “uniquely distinguished” Ming literature from Tang, Song, and Yuan.

Shiqu & sanqu were sang at private houses and dramatic arias were performed onstage. Chenghua Emperor and Zhengde Emperor both collected the printed song lyrics.

An annotated and illustrated edition of the Yuan play The Western Wing was published in 1498. The publisher’s note indicated that contemporary popular songs were often imitations of songs in The Western Wing, everyone had learned the play by heart and can perform them. The songs expressed human emotions and purified feelings and thus always affected the way of the world deeply.

Moral relationships in Confucian teachings.

The examination essay

It is an 8-part essay with very specific and complicated requirements in the uses of parallel phrases. Therefore, it took rigorous practice to master the 8-part essay, which involved repetition and drills.

Equivalent to a Du Fu in poetry or a Sima Qian in historiography. Took 1st place in both provincial examination and the metropolitan examination. Received lots of criticism.

It had issues in 18th century and was abolished in 20th century.