Ming poetry

Peach Festival of 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.

Background

Following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty for much or most of its existence represents an era of orderly government and social stability. During the Ming Dynasty the arts flourished, including painting, music, literature, dramatic theater, and poetry. Eventually, the Ming capital Beijing fell in 1644, together with most of the rest of the country; however, regimes loyal to the Ming throne — collectively called the Southern Ming — survived until 1662. Eventually, the Ming Dynasty was replaced by the Qing Dynasty.

Poets and poetry

Leading Ming poets include Gao Qi, Li Dongyang, and the publisher-poet Yuan Hongdao. Representatives of the dramatist-poet tradition include Tang Xianzu and 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.

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

• Chinese Sanqu poetry
• Classical Chinese poetry (for general information)
• Ōta Nampo (for an example of influence on a Japanese poet)
• The Latter Five Poets of the Southern Garden (regarding important Cantonese poets of the sixteenth century)
• The Latter Seven Masters (a Ming dynasty poetry circle)
• Category:Ming Dynasty plays (for information on the topic of Ming Dynasty plays)
• Category:Ming Dynasty poets (for Wikipedia articles categorized as being on the topic of Ming Dynasty poets)

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

References

• Davis, A. R. (Albert Richard), Editor and Introduction, The Penguin Book of Chinese Verse. (Baltimore: Penguin Books (1970).
• Kojiro Yoshikawa and John Timothy Wixted. Five Hundred Years of Chinese Poetry, 1150-1650 : The Chin, Yuan, and Ming Dynasties. (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1989). ISBN 9780691067681.
• Hongdao Yuan, Zongdao Yuan, Zhongdao Yuan and Jonathan Chaves. Pilgrim of the Clouds : Poems and Essays. (New York: Weatherhill, 1978). ISBN 0834801345.