Ming poetry

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
the Queen Mother of the West
, early 17th century, anonymous painter of the Ming dynasty.

Ming poetry refers to the poetry of or typical of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644).[1] With over one million specimens of Ming poetry surviving today, the poetry of the Ming dynasty represents one of the major periods of Classical Chinese poetry, as well as an area of active modern academic research. Ming poetry (and Chinese art and literature in general) is marked by 2 transitional phases, the transition between the Yuan dynasty which was the predecessor to the Ming, and the Qing-Ming transition which eventually resulted in the succeeding Qing dynasty. Although in politico-dynastic terms, the dynastic leadership of China is historically relatively clear-cut, the poetic periods involved encompass the lifespans and works of poets whose lives and poetic output transcend both the end of one dynasty and the initiatory period of the next.

Background

Following the collapse of the

Manchu conquest of China
.

Poets and poetry

Leading Ming poets include

Li Yu. Li Yu is also a prime example of the Ming-Qing transition's emotional outpouring when disorder swept away Ming stability as the incoming dynasty's Manchu warriors conquered from North to South. Ming representatives of the painter-poet tradition include Shen Zhou, Tang Yin, and Wen Zhengming. Interest in Tang poetry was expressed by the publication of several important anthologies, including Gao Bing's
Graded Compendium of Tang Poetry (Tangshi Pinhui, 唐詩品彙).

From the late Ming onwards, there was a new interest in women's writings and an increasing number of female poets appeared. Male literati edited anthologies of women's poems, however such actions were shocking to many orthodox thinkers.

Influence

The area of Ming poetry is one in which there are certain acknowledged major poets representative of the era; however, it is also an era associated with a dynamic of ongoing scholarly research, as well as less formal investigation.

See also

General

Background

  • Fall of the Ming dynasty
    (an article on the fall of Ming and rise of the Qing Dynasty)
  • Manchu conquest of China
    (another article on the fall of Ming and rise of Qing)
  • Ming dynasty (general information on dynasty)
  • Qing dynasty (next major dynasty)
  • Yuan dynasty (previous dynasty)

Notes

  1. ^ Davis, lxxi
  2. ^ Berg (2013), p. 245.
  3. ^ Berg (2013), p. 246.
  4. ^ "五月榴花照眼明——柳如是《天香浓浸图》赏析".
  5. ^ Berg (2013), p. 253.
  6. ^ Berg (2013), p. 287.

References