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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.
Ming statuette art reflects the attempt to restore
purely “Chinese” artistic genres with a healthy
injection of Confucian aesthetic, political, and
moral standards. Realistic depictions of daily life
became popular themes among artists who were
often patronized by the court. Under Xuande's
reign (1426-35), the art industry flourished,
producing many exquisite porcelain and ceramic
pieces. This glazed set is a product of the
artistic revival that occurred throughout the
Ming. This Ming set of glazed figurines depicts
an aspect of Chinese political and social life.
Tributary processions were common protocol at
this time, the emperor requiring provincial lords
to pay tribute and tax on a regular basis.
Processions were also held for funerals,
marriages, and rituals differing in grandeur
depending on the status of the individuals
involved and nature of the ceremony. The
palanquin served as the primary form of
transportation for the elite who often traveled
with several attendants.
This extraordinary tomb find consists of ten
horse and rider sculptures, thirty-eight
individual attendants, and two palanquins. The
horse march forward, followed by a retinue of
attendants, both male and female, presenting a
range of presents. Finally, the procession would
culminate with the palanquins that were once
held aloft on wooden poles, carried on the
shoulders of the attendants, which have long
since deteriorated. The palanquins are naturally
empty, for they were meant to carry the
deceased nobility alongside whom they were
buried into the afterlife. As Chinese statuette art
prescribes, the faces are created individually with
uniquely painted features, owing to their
distinctive expressions. The pieces still retain
much of their original polychrome paint,
remarkable considering the stresses of
excavation and the delicate nature of the
pigment. Evidence of gilding is still visible on a
large plate carried by one of the ladies in
waiting. One of the riders wears a stunning
yellow and black tunic that appear to have been
made from the hide of a tiger. This astounding
set is a masterpiece of Ming art, not just for the
size of the procession and the diversity of the
poses and gestures, but also for the remarkable
preservation of the original details and the
beauty of each piece as an individual work of art
and united together as masterpiece.
- (H.962)
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