Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)
Arts development in ming dynasty
- Traditional elegant literature to common and popular literature
- Traditional opera to legendary opera
Novels
The culture developed rapidly, especially in literature. Three of the four great classical masterpieces of Chinese literature - Journey to the West, Outlaws of the Marsh, and Romance of the Three Kingdoms were written in during this period. Besides, another two well-known novels - Peony Pavilion and The Plum in the Golden Vase were also excellent works in that period. Meanwhile, folk literature prospered, represented by a group of writers such as Tang Yin, Song Lian, Zhang Dai, Wu Weiye and Yuan Hongdao. In Ming Dynasty, literature reached to an extreme high level, which provides a mass amount of novels with the themes of citizens’ daily life, history, monsters, and romance. Architecture
Architecture also flourished with the construction of tall pagodas and arched bridges. One of their most famous works is The Forbidden City. Painting The people in Ming Dynasty absorb the techniques from the people of the previous dynasties to form the paintings with different unique styles. Procelain The Ming dynasty is the peak of porcelain production Blue and white porcelain: designate white pottery and porcelain decorated under the glaze with a blue pigment, generally cobalt oxide. Blue and white porcelain-ware with a depiction of a Chinese dragon from the late Ming dynasty
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Journey to the West is a Chinese novel published in the 16th century during the Ming Dynasty and attributed to Wu Cheng'en. It is one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. lt is an extended account of the legendary pilgrimage of the Tang dynasty Buddhist monk Xuanzang who traveled to the "Western Regions", that is, India, to obtain sacred texts (sūtras) and returned after many trials and much suffering.
Journey to the West also revealed the conflict between Taoism and Buddhism at that time, and it implied the corruption of the empire.
(Chinese) Opera Peony Pavilion is the most prestigious play of all in the Ming dynasty. The major Chinese opera were Huiju Opera and Yu Opera. The major tunes of the Chinese opera were the dialect in Jiangxi, and Kunqu (developed from the Kunshan melody). Kunqu had influenced on other Chinese theatre forms, including Peking Opera. Poetry Poetry was a flourishing art during the Ming Dynasty. They wrote skillfully on almost every topics, including nature, philosophy, relationships, sight and emotion etc. The amount of poems were created in Ming Dynasty was countless. Conclusion Most of the people in Ming Dynasty were educated, and they were minded. They had realized the politics and start criticizing the current politics. At that time, the politics was corrupt due to the over-power of the eunuchs. Therefore, the citizens blamed on the politics by writing poems and novels. |