Upon leading a victorious rebellion against the
foreign Mongul rulers of the Yuan Dynasty, a
peasant named Zhu Yuanzhang seized control of
China and founded the Ming Dynasty in 1368.
As emperor, he founded his capital at Nanjing
and adopted the name Hongwu as his reign title.
Hongwu, literally meaning “vast military,” reflects
the increased prestige of the army during the
Ming Dynasty. Due to the very realistic threat
still posed by the Mongols, Hongwu realized that
a strong military was essential to Chinese
prosperity. Thus, the orthodox Confucian view
that the military was an inferior class to be ruled
over by an elite class of scholars was
reconsidered. During the Ming Dynasty, China
proper was reunited after centuries of foreign
incursion and occupation. Ming troops
controlled Manchuria, and the Korean Joseon
Dynasty respected the authority of the Ming
rulers, at least nominally.
Like the founders of the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-
220 A.D.), Hongwu was extremely suspicious of
the educated courtiers that advised him and,
fearful that they might attempt to overthrow him,
he successfully consolidated control of all aspect
of government. The strict authoritarian control
Hongwu wielded over the affairs of the country
was due in part to the centralized system of
government he inherited from the Monguls and
largely kept intact. However, Hongwu replaced
the Mongul bureaucrats who had ruled the
country for nearly a century with native Chinese
administrators. He also reinstituted the
Confucian examination system that tested
would-be civic officials on their knowledge of
literature and philosophy. Unlike the Song
Dynasty (960-1279 A.D.), which received most of
its taxes from mercantile commerce, the Ming
economy was based primarily on agriculture,
reflecting both the peasant roots of its founder
as well as the Confucian belief that trade was
ignoble and parasitic.
Culturally, the greatest innovation of the Ming
Dynasty was the introduction of the novel.
Developed from the folk tales of traditional
storytellers, these works were transcribed in the
everyday vernacular language of the people.
Advances in printmaking and the increasing
population of urban dwellers largely contributed
to the success of these books. Architecturally,
the most famous monument of the Ming Dynasty
is surely the complex of temples and palaces
known as the Forbidden City that was
constructed in Beijing after the third ruler of the
Ming Dynasty, Emperor Yongle, moved the
capital there. Today, the Forbidden Palace
remains one of the hallmarks of traditional
Chinese architecture and is one of the most
popular tourist destinations in the vast nation.
This gorgeous bronze sculpture depicts the
Buddha seated in the dhyanasana
position (also called the padmasana
position), the posture of meditation better known
in the West as the lotus position upon a double
lotus throne. With his right hand, he forms the
bhumisparsa mudra, literally translated
as the “gesture of touching the earth” in which
the Buddha, when seated underneath the Bodhi
tree, touches the ground in order to call on the
earth to witness his enlightenment. This gesture
is considered a symbol of unshakable faith and
resolution. His other hand rests upon his leg,
holding a small begging bowl. All Buddhist
monks must possess a begging bowl in which
they collect food offerings. They became a
symbol of law, and therefore the Buddha himself.
The origins of begging bowls are Indian, and they
appear in Buddhist art as early as the Gandhara
era.
During the Ming Dynasty, representations the
Buddha displaying Tibetan influences were cast
in bronze, such as this gorgeous example. A
thick robe of many folds drapes over his left
shoulder and swoops around the neck with
graduated layered edges hanging over his right
shoulder. His facial features are well modeled
with a serene, content expression. His
pendulous earlobes droop down, resulting from
the heavy earring he used to wear during his
royal youth. The Buddha's tightly curled coiffure
is crowned by an ushnisa, or bump,
which symbolizes his divine intellect. The
creation of Buddha images, both large and small,
highlights the devotional intent of Buddhist art.
The pious hoped to gain merit in the next world
by making and offering images of the Buddha.
The images themselves were also didactic,
conveying aspects of doctrine and belief.
