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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.
With his arm outstretched holding an
imaginary rein, a
civil official stands patiently beside his
horse.
He wears a long, flowing turquoise robe
with wide sleeve openings folded
loosely across the body with a high, crossover
white collar and a belt drawn
through a circular belt buckle. A
flattened, tall cylindrical hat rests snugly on his
head, accentuating his
pendulant earlobes and delicately featured white
face.
The horse is caught in a natural pose
with its right leg cocked and mouth
agape.
Its sturdy, graceful body is
decorated with colorful layers of fittings and
insignia.
The mane is combed and parted
between the ears, and the long tresses of
the tail are cast in a singular mold. It
has a playful, childish quality that comes forth
through its gestures and
expressions.
After the T'ang Dynasty (AD 618-907), figurines
no
longer formed standard part of tomb furnishings
but the tradition lingered on.
The use of burial objects varied
according to individual choice or local
habit.
The Ming consciously revived
the art of tomb figurines, adding to the range of
colored glazes used since the
T'ang--light to dark blue, green, yellow and
turquoise.
Although the belief behind their use
faded, the Ming still produced
marvelous pieces, perhaps for their aesthetic and
symbolic value.
- (H.016)
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