The Research Of The Eight-Legged Essay Reading Of Ming Dynasty

In Ming Dynasty,the imperial examination system grew maturely and it was also in its heyday in history.As the first test during the whole process of the examination,the stereotyped writing which was called the eight-legged essay gradually became the most important literary form during the selection of candidates.The imperial examination system brought this literary form to a irreplaceable political and social position.The candidates learned it from very young age,who usually spent at least several years or decades to study,even a few had immersed in it for their entire lives.As the official testing literary style,it was very significant to learn classic reading books and to apply them to illustrate the meanings.Therefore,no matter the reading scope or viewpoints are,the eight-legged essay reading mainly depended on Confucianism to explain or illustrate.However,no matter how this literary form closed to the classic reading from the aspect of contents or perspectives,it was still blamed by many scholars.As Gu Yanwu mentioned,"When the eight-legged essay reached the peak while the classic books were very weak","the damage of the eight-legged essay was similar to the burning of all the classic books,or even worse than that." It is a little bit overstated to compare the disadvantages of the eight-legged essay to the damage of burning classic books.As a matter of fact,it has no difference with poetry and ancient prose,which are the literary forms of writing,with the fixed pattern and writing forms.But based on the special political features,the only different aspect is that it has the connection with social and economic system,the development of publishing economy,literary schools.That is why as Guo Shaoyu said"If we want to know an era,we can not ignore its literature.When we discuss Ming Dynasty,it is certainly that we need to talk about the eight-legged essay...Any scholars in Ming Dynasty has the connection with the essay.The literature and the literary criticism have direct or indirect relations with the eight-legged essay." In the past,the researches of the eight-legged essay in the disciplines of history and literature mostly have the inclinations to the discussions from the perspective of literary form evolution and that of the pros and cons.Therefore,with the notion of uselessness of the eight-legged essay,there is no objective attitude toward it.This paper based on the theoretical method of western reading history research and combined with the reading history research factors which were actively existing in the field of cultural history research to make an integral analysis of the eight-legged essay reading situation of candidates in Ming Dynasty.Thus,the first question is what is the reading history?In fact,it is the study of the history of the relationships between people and reading,the study of the history of the reading practices of ancient people,and the study of how to read books as well.The number of people who did the reading increased evidently,and the expansion of scholars was also relevant to the development of society and economy,historic innovations,technology development,and culture policies.In the reading history,the reading has a broad sense than reading books only.The reading mainly focuses on text,which includes written languages,images,oral speaking,inscriptions on tablets,pictures,printing sheets,music and so forth.It also includes movies,TV programs,even electronic information stored in the computers.The reading history is a very popular practical history study in the domain of new cultural history.Among the numerous theories of the reading history,the researcher in this thesis begins from cycling and exchanging theory mentioned by Robert Darnton,focusing on the exploration of the inner connections among the writers,readers and publishers of the eight-legged essay reading in Ming Dynasty.Besides,the researcher also focuses on the interaction effect of the different factors in the aspects of the eight-legged essay reading,social system and culture.When viewing the development of the eight-legged essay reading of scholars in Ming Dynasty,according to the different features it presented,it can be divided into three phases:the germination period at the beginning of Ming Dynasty,the developing period in the mid-Ming,and the heyday at the end of Ming.At the beginning of Ming Dynasty,the state system had just settled,social politics,economy and culture were in the recovering stage.The government adopted many ways to recruit scholars.It was apparent that the monopoly hadn't formed as the imperial examination system.That is to say,the government mainly focused on the integral qualities to foster scholars,and tried to select the intellectuals with great talents and capabilities to enter the system of national bureaucracy.The eight-legged essays in the initial period of Ming Dynasty were published officially in Xiangshilu,Huishilu and Jinshidengkelu.Bookshop block-printing and private block-printing were still in their immature stage.In the mid-Ming Dynasty,it was the most significant way for candidates to attend the imperial examination to enter the national bureaucracy system.As Gu Yanwu pointed out that "although there was no limitation for entering the official career,it was very difficult to attain the higher class unless he was a scholar which was why many senior officials' children were very eager to get success."Therefore,the political features of the eight-legged appeared gradually.With the development of the academies and presses in the mid and late Ming Dynasty,where the number of the officials came from,and were increased gradually in the bureaucratic system which even had set the criteria for recruiting the candidates.Moreover,there were many schools of literature in Ming Dynasty having closer relationships with the eight-legged essay reading.The scholars of the former Seven-Scholar School like Li Mengyang,He Jingming,Kang Hai,Wang Tingxiang,Xu Zhenqing,Bian Gong and Wang Jiusi,scholars from Tang-Song School such as Wang Shenzhong,Tang Shunzhi,Gui Youguang,and Mao Kun,and scholars from the latter Seven-Schoalr School including Li Panlong,Wang Shizhen,Zongchen,Liang Youyu,Xu Zhongxing and Wu Guolun had a great influence on the eight-legged essay reading.Through a series of writing practice,they tried hard to improve it to a higher level.Because of the hard working from these scholars,the eight-legged essay received praise by many people.Fang Bao mentioned "when in the periods of Zhengde and Jiajing,which was the best periods of essay writing,the technique of eight-legged essays combined the classical literary style and written methods of history books as well to show the main ideas indirectly which symbolized the culminating point of the eight-legged essay of Ming Dynasty." One of the most famous scholar Ji Yun also said "in Zhengde and Jiajing Periods,it was in its heyday."The eight-legged essay reading developed from the minimal reading groups into the large scale of the organized reading group with several regulations.The flourishing development of publishing industry also provided the solid guarantee for the requirements of the eight-legged essay reading Furthermore,it was evident that the roles of readers,authors,and publishers were independent and interchangeable as well.The reading also had influences on the representative literary forms--the drama and novel.Scholars usually put their experiences,ambitions and real feelings into the creation of dramas and novels which were influenced by the eight-legged essay.reading from the aspects of creation methods,writing styles and contents.The function of entering the national bureaucracy system applied successfully.That is why the education of the imperial examination system in late Ming Dynasty shows the pattern of studying the model essays to learn how to write".Hence,with the expansion of the group reading influences,it also had the political characters.Fushe had the great influences in the class of bureaucratic officials which not only determined the value orientation of the eight-legged essay publishing books,also drew up admission lists based on the way of recommendation.Whereas the serious disadvantages of the imperial examination in late Ming Dynasty had already influenced the development of the eight-legged essay reading.The cheating and plagiarism phenomena objectively showed that the candidates began to gradually derive from the eight-legged essay reading to enter the national bureaucratic system directly.It also had the evident relevance to discourse power of the eight-legged essay reading removed from the upper class to the public.