Page 2 - Art of the Ming and Qing Dynasty by Johnathan Hay

N.B. Numbers in parentheses in bold refer to the page of the Italian text on which the
relevant illustration may be found.

THE MING DYNASTY

The Yuan dynasty formally fell in 1368 to the Anhui peasant leader Zhu Yuanzhang,
who founded his own dynasty, the Ming (Bright). His success brought to an end two and a
half centuries of partial or complete foreign rule. During the subsequent three centuries of the
Ming dynastic cycle, China passed from a rigidly structured society in which the court

largely dominated the art of the elite, to a fluid entrepreneurial society with a far broader
social base for art. This long-term shift, which not coincidentally accompanied China's entry
into a global economic framework, was perhaps even more important in its effects than the

founding of the dynasty itself. In the longer view of Chinese history, the first half of the
Ming dynasty takes on special significance as the final example of a unified and hegemonic
dynastic style, while its decentralized second half is already much closer to modern cultural
developments.

FROM HONGWU TO TIANSHUN (1368-1464)

Although there were ten reign periods between 1368 and 1464, the decisive

contributions to Ming dynastic art came under three reigns: Hongwu, Yongle and Xuande.
The first of these reign periods was as noteworthy for what the court rejected or tolerated in
what it inherited as for its innovations. Above all, Zhu Yuanzhang is notorious for his general
distrust of intellectuals and particular persecution of literati from the Suzhou region, many of
whom had joined the court of his rival, Zhang Shicheng, when Zhang made Suzhou his

capital in 1356. In 1368, he banished thousands of them to the harsh environs of his home
area in Anhui, where a new capital was then under construction. At the same time, he offered
others official positions. By 1374, however, he was persuaded that they represented a

dangerous source of opposition; hundreds were executed and imprisoned, then and later.
Thus the troubled circumstances in which late Yuan painters were embroiled from the 1350s
onwards continued into the early Ming. Yet many of the greatest achievements of Yuan
painting belong to the first two decades of the new dynasty. Chen Ruyan (executed) lived
until at least 1370, Ni Zan until 1374, Zhao Yuan (executed) until 1376 or later, Xu Ben

(died in prison) until 1380, Wang Meng (died in prison) until 1385, and Fang Congyi perhaps