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 Forbidded Palace
remains one of the hallmarks of traditional
Chinese architecture and is one of the most
popular tourist destinations in the vast nation.
After years of suffering from Yuan domination--
a domination realized through the mastery of
cavalry warfare--the Ming Dynasty emerged to
reclaim its culturally superior status. In the
statuette art of the Ming, horses are favored
subjects. Ming horses typically have a robust and
rather massive appearance. This modification is
apparent in this set of horse, rider and attendant.
The rider sits high on a saddled horse with an
attendant at his side holding the reigns. The
figurines are painted in blue, red, and white
glaze. Apparently of high social status, the rider
is dressed in plain military attire. His hands
grasp something we can no longer see, but can
only imagine to be a weapon. His rank and
position in society enable him to travel on horse
accompanied by a male attendant. It was also
common for men of his background to engage in
equestrian activities such as polo. Through
realistic facial detail, the Ming artist gives life to
the medium. An individual emerges out of these
lifeless objects; the depiction of real-life
expressions enhances the vitality of these
characters who have existed throughout China's
long history. Imbuing the object with life was the
goal of craftsmen since their work, as
representations of real people, were to
accompany the deceased along a perilous
journey into the other world. Whether or not
these ceramic pieces made during the Ming
carried the same significance for its owner still
remains a mystery; however such burial practices
did not disappear with such speed or entirety.
