The Changes Of Aesthetic Culture During The Yuan-Ming Transition

The Ming Dynasty,established on the ruins of the Mongol Yuan empire,sought to restore traditional Han norms of life,shape the social order of the upper and lower classes,and recreate the charm of the empire of the Han ethnic group through a series of severe purges under the banner of "expelling the Hu and restoring China".The dynastic revolution caused a chain reaction in the cultural field.Along with the evolution of the ruler’s cultural strategy and the rise and fall of the status of the literati,the aesthetic culture in this period,such as literary thought,artistic creation,daily life,etc.,underwent obvious changes,thus showing the characteristics of a turnaround.The goal of this study is to explore how the disappearance of Confucian literati from the late Yuan Dynasty to the early Ming Dynasty brought about changes in the aesthetic culture of the early Ming society,how the meeting of monarchs and ministers affected the trend of aesthetic culture in the early Ming Dynasty,and how to delineate the essence behind this phenomenon from the history itself.Based on the collection,collation,reading and analysis of relevant literature,this work uses an interdisciplinary approach including aesthetics,literature,history and communication.Taking the imperial blueprint and ideals of cultural governance of the Ming regime as the entry point.From the perspective of aesthetic culturology,the present work examines the aesthetic turn and evolution of literature,art and social life during the Yuan and Ming Dynasties.From the overall level,we try to comprehensively comb the multiple threads of aesthetic culture at the time of the change of generation,and deeply identify its overall evolution trend.This article is structured in two main parts.The first part explores the historical and cultural context of the early Ming Dynasty from the perspective of state power and social control.This paper argues that Zhu Yuanzhang’s regime in the early Ming went through a very difficult process in gaining the recognition of the literati.After the Zhu Ming regime was firmly established,Zhu Yuanzhang’s mentality towards the scholars also changed from being courteous to killing them.The literati just came out of the war in the Late Yuan,and then fell into a deeper fear.The mutual suspicion between Zhu Yuanzhang and the scholars became the source of the miserable fate of the literati in the late Hongwu period.Zhu Yuanzhang’s ideal empire was to build a Confucian ideal society with clear boundaries,unequal status of different social classes in the Han cultural zone.Thus,he defined the boundaries of thought in terms of both "Ritual" and "Confucianism" and established a state ideology dominated by Zhuxi’s philosophy in the field of thought.The rulers and ministers maintained the legitimacy of the regime through law and order.The Confucian ethics showed an enveloping influence on the state level,shaping the early Ming society with a strong idealism.Zhu Yuanzhang’s upbringing experience led him to develop a view of life that honors the real and the useful,and his understanding of literature,art and life became the coordinates of aesthetic taste.The second part is the main body of this paper,which discusses many phenomena of aesthetic cultural transformation in the early Ming Dynasty,specifically exploring four aspects of literary aesthetics,painting aesthetics,dress aesthetics and leisure aesthetics.This paper argues that the literary aesthetic at the time of the Yuan Ming Transition took a turn.The poetic aesthetic moved from a focus on emotion to a high and righteous,and the literary concept shifted from emotionality to the Confucianism.After the Ming Dynasty,the Ming emperor of the ideology of comprehensive control,the establishment of the Confucianism.The literature was also incorporated into the track of ethical edification,and Confucianism became the dominant literary aesthetic trend in the Hongwu period.The reasons for the aesthetic changes in early Ming literature stemmed from both the changes in the mindset of the literati and the rise and fall of regional literary groups,but also from the fact that rulers and ministers put forward clear aesthetic demands on literature.Once the mainstream literary aesthetic was formed,it naturally became an authoritative model and a marker of the early Ming literary style.The Late Yuan Dynasty was the peak period of Chinese painting history,and literati painting took "Yi" as the main aesthetic feature,among which,Ni Zan’s paintings are the more recognized example of "Yi" aesthetic.His philosophy of landscape was not only the expression of his proud personality,but also represented the general moral and sentiment of the literati at that time.The Hongwu period was a crucial period in the development of Ming painting,playing a role in carrying forward and initiating the future.The literary philosophy of the monarchs and ministers was that they wanted literature and art to play a full political role,so the painting within the court was restricted to education.Painters recruited to the capital during the Hongwu period inherited the style of Song dynasty courtyard painting and merged Yuan dynasty literati painting techniques with the aesthetic demands of the new dynasty,laying the technical foundation and theoretical guidelines for court painting during the Yongle and Xuande periods.The literati from Yuan to Ming both continued the painting style of the Yuan and developed and innovated in the process of political order reconstruction.For example,Zhang Guan,Wang Lv,Wang Fu and other literati painters,on the basis of fully absorbing the painting style of the Yuan Dynasty and under the strong atmosphere of Confucianism of the new dynasty,began to break away from the painting style of the Yuan Dynasty,which did not seek for resemblance.They shifted from focusing on the inner spirit of individual life to focusing on the external natural objects,respond the spirit of the science of materialism and knowledge.The Yuan Dynasty was the heyday of exchange and integration between Chinese and foreign cultures.The Mongolian costumes widely absorbed the foreign and Chinese cultures,and the gold threads and silk woven into the glamorous crown and beautiful clothes,and the patterns were both traditional Chinese auspicious patterns and exotic gods and goddesses.The design of the textiles integrated the elements of the East and the West,making the Mongolian costume with graceful and exotic aesthetic characteristics.After entering the Ming Dynasty,the Emperor strongly implemented dress reform,and under the banner of using Xia to change Yi,he realized the change from "Hu" style to Chinese clothing.Based on the hierarchical standards derived from Confucianism,the rulers and ministers designed a set of unprecedentedly detailed clothing system,which basically achieved the social effect of looking at the clothes and knowing the nobility.With "etiquette" as the core concept of costume reform,the early Ming costumes had an aesthetic connotation of genial and simplicity.Together,power and Confucian ideals shaped the basic form of social conservatism in the early Ming Dynasty and created an era of rituals and mellow customs in the eyes of generations.As one of the leisure cultures,the Yaji culture has distinctive aesthetic characteristics of exalting life.At the end of the Yuan Dynasty,the literati not only displayed their talents,but also resonated with the spirit of the literati,who wrote poems,painting,drinking in the elegant gatherings,leading a wave of aesthetic trend in the southeastern China.After the Ming Dynasty,the Ming Emperor controlled the population and cracked down on wealthy merchants.The literati’s elegant activities,which were active at the end of the Yuan Dynasty,abruptly ceased in the early Ming Dynasty.The leisure activities of the literati in the early Ming Dynasty were different from those in the Yuan Dynasty in terms of both number and scale,but they also led to the development of a new way of interaction in different places with the same tone.To sum up,in the historical and cultural context of the early Ming Dynasty,the aesthetic trend moved from leisurely and comfortable to elegant and orderly.The rulers achieved effective control over the aesthetic consciousness of all social classes through rituals and decrees,and their own aesthetic interests and personal preferences became the aesthetic norms of the early Ming dynasty,leaving the space for the development of folk aesthetic culture extremely narrow,almost losing its autonomy.The reason for the aesthetic cultural turn at the time of the Yuan and Ming dynasties was the process of power exertion,implied by ethical and political goals.