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.
Glazed sculptural tile are today considered one of
the hallmarks of classical Chinese architecture.
However, despite their popularity in modern
times, they were relatively scarce until after the
end of the T’ang Dynasty. Even then, during the
Song and Yuan Dynasties, they were still
infrequently used. It was not until the rise of the
Ming Dynasty that glazed sculptural tiles became
a popular decorative devise extensively
employed in temples, altars, imperial palaces,
and gardens. Beijing became the center of
glazed architectural tile production during the
Ming period, and colorfully decorated pagodas
began to sprout up around this region. Eaves
and entryways were decorated with vibrant
sculptures that served both decorative and
sometimes religious purposes. On temples and
palaces, representations of mounted warriors
and snarling dragons were meant to ward off
evildoers, of both the physical and spiritual kind.
Judging from the shape of the base of this
imposing dragon tile, it is likely that it once
rested along the eaves of a roof or on the top a
wall surrounding the grounds of a Ming Dynasty
temple or palace. As an architectural ornament,
this sculpture is a masterpiece. Surely the
building that this work once adorned must have
been quite spectacular. The dragon sits upon a
swirling cloud, head held upwards, mouth ajar,
as if poised to release a breath of fire. Spiky
horns decorate the dragon’s head and spine that
themselves appear like miniature flames. When
we imagine the entire temple structure covered
in such tiles, from the walls to the roof, the glory
of Ming Dynasty China becomes apparent.
