Upon leading a victorious rebellion against the
foreign Mongol 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
Mongols and largely kept intact. However,
Hongwu replaced the Mongol 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 Forbidden Palace remains one of
the hallmarks of traditional Chinese
architecture and is one of the most popular
tourist destinations in the vast nation.
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. 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.
