From ’Nanjing’ To ’Beijing’ :The Research On Literature During Yonle And Xuande Of Ming Dynasty

This thesis explores the development of the spirited characteristic of literature from the Late Yuan and Early Ming to the officialese style dominated by the cabinet. The cultural pattern in Hongwu and Jianwen which took ’Nanjing’ as political symbol succeeded that of the Late Yuan. A new pattern had been prepared in Yongle. After relocating the capital, it had been reinforced in Hongxi and Xuande. Finally, the new political and cultural pattern adopting the capital ’Beijing’ as its emblem had appeared.The first and second chapter discuss the changing feature and trend of political and cultural pattern based on political background.Since middle and late Zhizheng,central political and cultural power had severely declined, decentralizing to the local,which is characterized by the political collapse and cultural dominance change from the cabinet and Hanlin Academy officials to the provincial groups. On the whole,the unified political and cultural pattern crashed.As things always reverse themselves after reaching an extreme, it’s necessary to rebuild the political and cultural system dominated by the imperial court.Efforts had been made by Mingtaizu to rebuild a highly centralized system of government and imperial power,but the decentralization of Late Yuan left behind. Specifically, harmonious relationship between the officials and the emperor,the scholars and the court had not established yet. And, the cultural influence of cabinet and Hanlin Academy was quite limited. In summary, the Late Yuan bequeathed its political and cultural pattern to early Ming of Hongwu and Jianwen, which characterized by ’Nanjing’ politically, and its own typical political and cultural pattern had not appeared.Significant change occurred during Yongle and Xuande.The absolute priority of Yonle,who wrested the power from Jianwen by war of ’jingnan’, was to get scholar group docile. First and foremost, he brought the scholars to his knees by cruel means and coercion. For instance, the horrific slaughter of uncooperative scholars, the re-shuffling of personnel by surveillance and spying in early times, and keeping up the pressure against the officials serving for the prince by putting them into jail. Scholars was terrified surviving form the war of ’jingnan’,and it had been strengthen during the hard time during Yongle,which traumatized them all the time.Another way was to allow the scholars to play a significant role in political and cultural life.For example, compiling series of classics, educating Shujishi, upgrading the status of cabinet members, perfecting the imperial examination. Finally, in Hongxi and Xuande, efforts had been made to ease tensions, and improve civil officials’political treatment, thus the improvement of relationship between scholar and the court, official and the emperor had been made. In summary, the cabinet and imperial examination opened the gate of taking part in administration, and after the hurt of coercion in Yongle,scholars felt warm of the relaxed environment in Hongxi and Xuande after the coldness of Yongle. In such political ecology, the cultural discourse dominated by the court was powerful.The third and fourth chapter turn to the social thoughts and culture context. The third chapter mainly concerned about the social cultural atmosphere and trend of literati under development of Neo-Confucianism. Certain past Research put too much emphasis on the stagnation of academy, the academic unity of Chengyi and Zhuxi, the suppression of new thoughts, which was general and external, prone to hide from us the internal developing logic and feature of Neo-Confucianism in Yuan and Ming. It’s noticeable that on one hand, the Neo-Coniucianism in early Ming inherited the system of Yuan, reinforcing it by the imperial examination and Confucian schools. The institutional power shaped the reading and thing pattern and even the spiritual and daily life of the scholars based on the Confucian schools towards the imperial examination.On the other hand, the trend of practicing rather than creating new theory was apparent in academic arena. When the Zhedong school suffered a hardest hit with the breaking down of Jianwen regime, Jiangxi and Anhui academic tradition played a significant role in cultural life during Hongwu and Yongle. Xin’an academy was closely related to the Confucian classics compiled by the government in the content,the editing style. Jiangxi academy was specifically for the examinees of the imperial examination, and Jiangxi Confucian teachers played an important role in local education. If we take into concern the number of officials who are sent to the court by such education and the power of Jiangxi officials in Early Ming,then such local academic form should not be neglected.The scholar’s behavior had showed corresponding transformation in Yongle and Xuande as well, which was apparent comparing with Zhedong scholars. The characteristic of Intellectual life was to reject transcendent, substituting practicing for transcending.The utilitarianism and the secularization was gradually obvious in scholar’s spiritual life. And they tended to behave in a moderate, humble and cautious way. Specifically, the scholars threw himself at the emperor’s feet and the idea of cultivating the emperor and realizing Confucian value held by Zhedong scholars had already lost in scholar’s political attitude and practice.The fourth chapter focuses on the social cultural context of the prevailing of officialese style. Scholars in Hongwu were different from those in Yongle and Xuande in life style, values and cultural taste, which was characterize by the difference between Zhengdong and Jiangxi scholars. It was related to regional cultural tradition indeed, however, the development resulted from the institutional and cultural background as well, reflecting the general trend of culture.Zhedong scholars were representatives of scholars in Late Yuan and Early Ming. Specifically, their life style was academic and cultural.Local families like Yi-men of the Zheng family provided social bonds and the relationship between teachers and students,hosts and guests were of great importance. As for the political ideas, they believed in protesting tyrannies and protecting the honor of a scholar. In contrast, Jiangxi scholars represented the newly appointed high officials, their identity were bureaucrats who actively joined the imperial system.their life style was living as bureaucrat rather than scholar or poet. They related to each other mainly by classmates,examinees who passed the imperial examination in the same year and fellow officials, which revolving around the imperial examination and localism. Besides,the Confucian schools closely linked to the development of officialese style. Since the teachers played a key role to spread the officialese style.The fifth chapter focuses on the political and cultural functions of officialese style in the perspective of the imperial court, which pays attention to their views on prose. As literature in Late Yuan ran counter to the Confucian view, it’s responsible to rescue the moral value of the literary world for every writers in Early Ming. Standing in the stance of Neo Confucianism, efforts had been made by the school of Zhedong who dominated the literary arena from Hongwu to Jianwen.While cabinet and Hanlin Academy officials put different emphasis on it according to their identity, and they held the opinion of literary works should embellish politics.In terms of the model of the literary world, Ouyangxiu stood head and shoulders above the rest, and the imitation of Ouyangxiu’s style showed the admiration for the elegant and peaceful style which matched the full glory of the dynasty. Besides, the idea of glorifying the emperor and eulogizing the country and the development of officialese style had been researched. In early Yongle, the creation of works about propitious omen appointed by the emperor was mostly political behavior, and in the middle times, the consciousness of eulogizing the country was reinforced in works which were about retinue and tribute. Finally, after the relocating the capital, members approving of officialese style united around Yangshiqi and the school of officialese style established eventually. On the whole, the idea of glorifying the emperor and eulogizing the country had developed, transferring from appointed and political action to conscious and subjetive behavior, which indicated the officialese style had already been the symbol of the age.