The Study Of Huang Ruheng

Huang Ruheng was a representative literatus in the Ming Dynasty who lived from Wanli to Tianqi. Both his familiar essays(xiaopin wen) and eight-leg essays(bagu wen) have played important roles in the literature history. However, there are few references of him in the contemporary compilation about the history of Ming literature. When he was young, he had already had a good reputation in the literary world. People from far and near both followed him. Although he had experienced failure in the imperial examination system again and again, he still never gave up becoming an official. On the contrary, his determination grew stronger and stronger with each failure. Eventually, he passed the imperial examination. He was an honest and incorruptible official, whose fame spreaded over Jiangnan area. Nevertheless, he was demoted many times because of others" jealousy. There are many up and downs in his more than twenty official years. Then he got away from the official circles under the pretext of sickness, and lived as a hermit in the mountain forest until his dead. He had learned from Mao Kun, so his literary conceptions were affected by the Tang Song School to a large extent, which emphasized the importance role of the ancient doctrine. At the same time, he did his best to absorb new ideas from the late Ming, including the concept of Xingling and real feelings. In addition to Confucianism, he thought that Buddhism and Taoism should be all-inclusive. Huang Ruheng had many acquaintances. The identities of his friends are not only famous scholars, such as Wang Shizhen, Jiao Hong, or dramatist, such as Tang Xianzu, Wu Dashan, but also publishers like Wu Jizhuo, Wu Jing, and monks like Shi Guangxun, Shi Xingyue. He was a prolific writer. His poem albums named Yulin ji,Yulin shiji, were collected and published by disciples during Tianqi era. The achievement of his familiar essays(xiaopin wen) is particularly outstanding, which are frank and straightforward, paying attention to express one’s real feelings, with distinct characteristics of the times. Besides this, he was also actively engaged in activities about the creation, compilation and publication of eight-leg essays(bagu wen) which had a far-reaching impact on the contemporary and later. The contents of this paper are thorough studies on Huang Ruheng’s life, friends, writing and publishing activities with the aim that to reveal the status and value of Huang Ruheng in the late Ming Dynasty.