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.
This glazed figurine set of an attendant and
horse is
typical of the artistic changes that occurred after
the Mongols were expelled
from the Chinese court and the Ming Dynasty
was established.
Mingqi burial pieces tended to
reflect this revitalization of the
glorious past and celebration of the triumph of
Chinese strength and spirit.
The horse is endowed with features of
the Mongolian breed of horse that
was short, stocky, and powerful as it is also
stylized in such a way that
emphasizes new imperial strength. The
naturalist features of the horse’s head such as its
black mane, small pointed ears, penetrating blue
eyes, and long muzzle and the
colorfully painted bridle and armored saddle
indicate a shift from highly
stylized portrayals of horses as in previous
periods. Both the horse and the attendant are
painted in colors of vivid green,
brown, and gold. The attendant’s
robe and cap are representative of the changes
in court fashion, as the new
regime championed the doctrine of Neo-
Confucianism and began to restructure
customs and rituals to its prescribed formula of
conduct. Entombing burial objects with
deceased officials and
lords continued as a practice, but it gradually
began to subside toward the end
of the Ming.
This mounted set of a
horse and attendant is embodied with the
historical spirit of the times as it
represents the evolution of burial practices from
early China as well as the
celebratory mood of the Ming Dynasty.
