Literature of the early Ming to mid-Ming (1375–1572)

doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521855594.003

1 - Literature of the early Ming to mid-Ming (1375–1572)

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 May 2011

Kang-I Chang

Edited by

Kang-i Sun Chang and

Stephen Owen

Show author details

Kang-i Sun Chang: Affiliation:
Yale University, Connecticut
Stephen Owen: Affiliation:
Harvard University, Massachusetts

Book contents

Get access

Summary

Overview

In the available histories of Chinese literature today, early and mid-Ming literature has been largely ignored. This problem is partly due to our obsession with the late Ming (i.e. 1550–1644), which has led us to ignore some equally important, if not more important, literary phenomena occurring before 1550. In fact, many of the important trends that have been associated with the late Ming actually find their origins much earlier. For example, it was during the early Ming – especially the Yongle reign (1403–1424) – that literature began to flourish in the court, when scholar–officials considered themselves to be somewhat like European courtiers.

For the sake of convenience, the literature of the early and middle Ming can be divided roughly into three periods: 1375 to 1450, 1450 to 1520, and 1520 to 1572. The beginning of the first period was far from being a cultural revival. Zhu Yuanzhang, the Hongwu Emperor, was suspicious to the point of paranoia, and was completely unpredictable in his responses to poetry. His persecution of authors whom he believed to have secretly criticized him was often brutal. Once a poor peasant and a local leader during the Red Turban revolt, the emperor assumed that the cultural elite would despise him; thus, reading between the lines for evidence of disloyalty, he brought death or banishment upon countless literary men. Given his persecution of writers and artists, it is ironic that among the past emperors of imperial China, Zhu Yuanzhang is the one whose portraits have been best preserved. At present, twelve portraits of Zhu are kept in the Palace Museum in Taipei, Taiwan, and one is in the Palace Museum in Beijing.

Information

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature , pp. 1 - 62

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521855594.003 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Barr, Allan H.“The Later Classical Tale.” In The Columbia History of Chinese Literature, ed. Mair, Victor H.. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001.Google Scholar

Birch, Cyril, ed. Anthology of Chinese Literature, Vol. 2: From the 14th Century to the Present Day. New York: Grove Press, 1972.

Brokaw, Cynthia J., and Chow, Kai-wing, eds. Printing and Book Culture in Late Imperial China. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005.

Brook, Timothy, Bourgon, Jerome, and Blue, Gregory. “Lingchi in the Ming Dynasty.” In their Death by a Thousand Cuts. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008.Google Scholar

Brook, Timothy. The Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming China. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.

Bryant, Daniel. Great Recreation: Ho Ching-ming (1483–1521) and his World. Leiden: Brill, 2008.

Bryant, Daniel. “Poetry of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries.” In The Columbia History of Chinese Literature, ed. Mair, Victor H.. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001.Google Scholar

Buck, Pearl S., trans. All Men Are Brothers. 2 vols. New York: John Day, 1933. Repr. New York: Grove, 1957.

Hsiao-lan, Ch’en and Mote, F. W.. “Yang Shen and Huang O: Husband and Wife as Lovers, Poets, and Historical Figures.” In Excursions in Chinese Culture: Festschrift in Honor of William R. Schultz, ed. Chan, Marie, Tao, Chia-lin Pao, and Tao, Jing-shen. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2002.Google Scholar

Chan, Hok-lam. Legends of the Building of Old Peking. Hong Kong and Seattle: The Chinese University of Hong Kong and University of Washington, 2008.

Chan, Wing-tsit. Instructions for Practical Living and Other Neo-Confucian Writings by Wang Yang-ming. New York: Columbia University Press, 1963.

Chang, Kang-i Sun. “Gender and Canonicity: Ming-Qing Women Poets in the Eyes of the Male Literati.” In Hsiang Lectures on Chinese Poetry, vol. 1, ed. Fong, Grace S.. Centre for East Asian Studies Research, McGill University, 2001.Google Scholar

Chang, Kang-i Sun, and Saussy, Haun, eds. Women Writers of Traditional China: An Anthology of Poetry and Criticism. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999.

Chaves, Jonathan, ed. and trans. The Columbia Book of Later Chinese Poetry. New York: Columbia University Press, 1986.

Chia, Lucia. Printing for Profit: The Commercial Publishers of Jianyang, Fujian (11th-17th Centuries). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2002.

Chow, Kai-wing. Publishing, Culture, and Power in Early Modern China. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004.

Chu, Hung-lam. “Textual Filiation of Li Shimian’s Biography: The Part about the Palace Fire in 1421.”East Asian Library Journal 13, no. 1 (2008):.Google Scholar

Dent-Young, John, and Dent-Young, Alex, trans. The Broken Seals: Part One of The Marshes of Moung Liang, A New Translation of the Shuihu Zhuan or Water Margin. By Nai’an, Shi and Guanzhong, Lo. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 1994.

Dent-Young, John, and Dent-Young, Alex, trans. The Tiger Killers: Part Two of the Marshes of Mount Liang. By Nai’an, Shi and Guanzhong, Lo. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 1997.

Dent-Young, John, and Dent-Young, Alex, trans. The Gathering Company: Part Three of the Marshes of Mount Liang. By Nai’an, Shi and Guanzhong, Lo. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2001.

Dent-Young, John, and Dent-Young, Alex, trans. Iron Ox: Part Four of the Marshes of Mount Liang. By Nai’an, Shi and Guanzhong, Lo. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2002.

Dreyer, Edward. Early Ming China: A Political History. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1981.

Dudbridge, Glen. The His-yu chi: A Study of Antecedents to the Sixteenth-Century Chinese Novel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970.

Ebrey, Patricia Buckley. Cambridge Illustrated History of China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Elman, Benjamin. A Cultural History of Civil Examinations in Late Imperial China. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000.

Fei, Faye Chunfang, ed. and trans. Chinese Theories of Theater and Performance from Confucius to the Present. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002.

Fong, Grace S.“Poetry of the Ming and Qing Dynasties.” In How to Read Chinese Poetry: A Guided Anthology, ed. Cai, Zong-qi. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008.Google Scholar

Ge, Liangyan. Out of the Margins: The Rise of Chinese Vernacular Fiction. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2001.

Goodrich, L. Carrington, and Fang, Chaoying, eds. Dictionary of Ming Biography, 1368–1644. 2 vols. New York: Columbia University Press, 1976.

Hanan, Patrick. The Chinese Short Story: Studies in Dating, Authorship, and Composition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1973.

Hanan, Patrick. “The Early Chinese Short Story: A Critical Theory in Outline.”Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 27 (1987):.Google Scholar

Hansen, Valerie. The Open Empire: A History of China to 1600. New York: Norton, 2000.

Harmon, Coy L.“Trimming the Lamp: The Literary Tales of Ch’u Yu.” In Excursions in Chinese Culture: Festschrift in Honor of William R. Schultz, ed. Chan, Marie, Tao, Chia-lin Pao, and Tao, Jing-shen. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2002.Google Scholar

Hayden, George A.“A Skeptical Note on the Early History of Shui-hu chuan.”Monumenta Serica 32 (1976):.Google Scholar

Hegel, Robert E.Reading Illustrated Fiction in Late Imperial China. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998.

Hsia, C. T.The Classic Chinese Novel: A Critical Introduction. New York: Columbia University Press, 1968.

Hucker, Charles. A Dictionary of Official Titles in Imperial China. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1985.

Idema, Wilt L.The Dramatic Oeuvre of Chu Yu-Tun. Leiden: Brill, 1985.

Idema, Wilt L.“Male Fantasies and Female Realities: Chu Shu-chen and Chang Yu-niang and Their Biographies.” In Chinese Women in the Imperial Past: New Perspectives, ed. Zurndorfer, Harriot T.. Leiden: Brill, 1999.Google Scholar

Idema, Wilt L.“Traditional Dramatic Literature.” In The Columbia History of Chinese Literature, ed. Mair, Victor H.. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001.Google Scholar

Idema, Wilt L., and West, Stephen H.. Chinese Theater 1100–1450: A Source Book. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner, 1982.

Irwin, Richard G.The Evolution of a Chinese Novel: Shui-hu chuan. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1953.

Irwin, Richard G.“Water Margin Revisited.”T’oung Pao 58 (1960):.Google Scholar

Johnson, Linda Cooke, ed. Cities of Jiangnan in Late Imperial China. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1993.

Kroll, Paul W., trans. “The Golden Phoenix Hairpin.” By You, Qu. In Traditional Chinese Stories, ed. Ma, Y. W. and Lau, Joseph S. M.. New York: Columbia University Press, 1978.Google Scholar

Chieh-kang, Ku. “A Study of Literary Persecution during the Ming.” Trans. Goodrich, L. Carrington. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 3 (1938):.Google Scholar

Li, Peter. “Narrative Patterns in San-kuo and Shui-hu.” In Chinese Narrative: Critical and Theoretical Essays, ed. Plaks, Andrew H.. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1977.Google Scholar

Li, Wai-yee. “Full-length Vernacular Fiction.” In The Columbia History of Chinese Literature, ed. Mair, Victor H.. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001.Google Scholar

Liu, Wu-chi, and Lo, Irving Yucheng, eds. Sunflower Splendor: Three Thousand Years of Chinese Poetry. New York: Anchor Books, 1975.

Lowry, Kathryn A.The Tapestry of Popular Songs in 16th- and 17th-Century China: Reading, Imitation, and Desire. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2005.

Lynn, Richard John. “Mongol-Yüan Classical Verse (Shih).” In The Columbia History of Chinese Literature, ed. Mair, Victor H.. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001.Google Scholar

Lynn, Richard John. “Tradition and the Individual: Ming and Ch’ing Views on Yuan Poetry.”Journal of Oriental Studies (University of Hong Kong) 15 (1977):.Google Scholar

Ma, Y. W., and Lau, Joseph S. M., eds. Traditional Chinese Stories: Themes and Variations. New York: Columbia University Press, 1978.

Mackerras, Colin, ed. Chinese Theater: From Its Origins to the Present Day. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1983.

Mair, Victor H., ed. The Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature. New York: Columbia University, 1994.

Mair, Victor H., ed. The Columbia History of Chinese Literature. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001.

Mair, Victor H., Steinhardt, Nancy S., and Goldin, Paul R., eds. Hawai’i Reader in Traditional Chinese Culture. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2005.

Marmé, Michael. “Heaven on Earth: The Rise of Suzhou, 1127–1550.” In Cities of Jiangnan in Late Imperial China, ed. Johnson, Linda Cooke. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1993.Google Scholar

Metzger, Thomas A.Escape from Predicament: Neo-Confucianism and China’s Evolving Political Culture. New York: Columbia University Press, 1977.

Mote, F. W.Imperial China: 900–1800. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999.

Mote, F. W.The Poet Kao Ch’i. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1962.

Naquin, Susan. Peking: Temples and City Life, 1400–1900. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000.

Nienhauser, William H. Jr., ed. and comp. The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature. 2 vols. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986–1998.

Ong, Chang Woei. Men of Letters within the Passes: Guanzhong Literati in Chinese History, 907–1911. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2008.

Ong, Chang Woei. “The Principles are Many: Wang Tingxiang and Intellectual Transition in Mid-Ming China.”Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 66, no. 2 (2006):.Google Scholar

Paludan, Ann. The Imperial Ming Tombs. Foreword by L. Carrington Goodrich. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981.

Plaks, Andrew H.The Four Masterworks of the Ming Novel. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987.

Rexroth, Kenneth, and Chung, Ling, ed. and trans. Women Poets of China. New York: New Directions, 1972.

Roberts, Moss, trans. Three Kingdoms: A Historical Novel. Attributed to Luo Guanzhong. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.

Robinson, David M.“Images of Subject Mongols under the Ming Dynasty.”Late Imperial China 25, no. 1 (2004):.Google Scholar

Rolston, David L., ed. How to Read the Chinese Novel. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990.

Rolston, David L., ed. Traditional Chinese Fiction and Fiction Commentary: Reading and Writing between the Lines. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997.

Santangelo, Paolo. “Urban Society in Later Imperial Suzhou.” Trans. Adam Victor. In Cities of Jiangnan in Late Imperial China, ed. Johnson, Linda Cooke. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1993.Google Scholar

Schlepp, Wayne, trans. “Lament for a Song Girl.” By Shi, Tang. In Hawai’i Reader in Traditional Chinese Culture, ed. Mair, Victor H., Steinhardt, Nancy S., and Goldin, Paul R.. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2005.Google Scholar

Schlepp, Wayne, trans. San-ch’u: Its Technique and Imagery. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1970.

Tan, Tian Yuan. “The Wolf of Zhongshan and Ingrates: Problematic Literary Contexts in Sixteenth-Century China.”Asia Major series 3, 20, pt. 1 (2007):.Google Scholar

Tong, James W.Disorder under Heaven: Collective Violence in the Ming Dynasty. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991.

Tsai, Shih-shan Henry. Perpetual Happiness: The Ming Emperor Yongle. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2001.

Wei-ming, Tu. Neo-Confucian Thoughtin Action: Wang Yang-ming’s Youth (1472–1509). Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976.

Tu, Ching-i. “The Chinese Examination Essay.”Monumenta Serica 31 (1974–1975):.Google Scholar

Waley, Arthur, trans. Monkey. London: John Day, 1942. Repr. New York: Grove Press, 1958.

Waltner, Ann. “Writing Her Way out of Trouble: Li Yuying in History and Fiction.” In Writing Women in Late Imperial China, ed. Widner, Ellen and Chang, Kang-i Sun. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997.Google Scholar

West, Stephen H., and Idema, Wilt L., ed. and trans. The Story of the Western Wing. By Shifu, Wang. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995.

Wixted, John Timothy. “Poetry of the Fourteenth Century.” In The Columbia History of Chinese Literature, ed. Mair, Victor H.. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001.Google Scholar

Wu, Yenna. “Outlaws’ Dreams of Power and Position in Shuihu zhuan.”Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews 18 (1996):.Google Scholar

Ye, Yang, trans. Vignettes from the Late Ming: A Hsiao-P’in Anthology. With annotations and introduction by Yang Ye. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1999.

KŌjirŌ, Yoshikawa. Five Hundred Years of Chinese Poetry, 1150–1650. Trans. Wixted, John Timothy. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989.

Yu, Anthony C.“History, Fiction, and Reading Chinese Narrative.”Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews 10 (1988):.Google Scholar

Yu, Anthony C., ed. and trans. The Journey to the West. 4 vols. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977–1983.

Yu, Anthony C., ed. and trans. The Monkey and the Monk: A Revised Abridgment of the Journey to the West. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2006.

Yu, Pauline. “Formal Distinctions in Chinese Literary Theory.” In Theories of the Arts in China, ed. Bush, Susan and Murck, Christian. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983.Google Scholar

Accessibility standard: Unknown

Why this information is here

This section outlines the accessibility features of this content - including support for screen readers, full keyboard navigation and high-contrast display options. This may not be relevant for you.

Accessibility Information

Accessibility compliance for the PDF of this chapter is currently unknown and may be updated in the future.