Upon leading a victorious rebellion
against the
foreign Mongol 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 Mongols
and
largely kept intact. However, Hongwu
replaced
the Mongol 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.
The importance of the horse in the
history and
culture of China can be viewed, in part,
through
the artistic legacy of this great
civilization. In
sculpture, painting, and literature,
horses
were
glorified and revered. Furthermore,
horses
were
believed to be relatives of the
mythological
dragon, reflecting their sacred status
within
society. The speed and endurance of
horses
enabled China to conquer new lands and
govern
far away provinces under a unified
central
government. Horses were and essential
component of the Civic Letters Bureau, a
modern
postal service founded during the Ming
Dynasty,
which contributed to the dissolution of
traditional
smoke signal communications. This white
horse
bears the broad, flattened face that is
characteristic of horse sculptures
during the
transition from the Yuan to the Ming
Dynasty.
Remnants of light green paint still
remain on
his
harness while red pigment highlights his
nostrils,
mouth, and eyes. Some gilding is even
visible
on
the bits, suggesting the luxurious
nature of
this
work. The rider, who sits with his left
arm
curled
up to his chest and his right arm held
out to
his
side, as if motioning with invisible
reigns for
the
horse to turn, also bears a striking
amount of
his
original paint, evident in his red coat
and
black
vest. Overall, this sculpture is a
testament to
the
revered status of the horse in Chinese
culture,
a
love affair that was well over a fifteen
hundred
years old by the time this equestrian
effigy
was
created.
