Analysis Of Social Upheaval And Intellectual's Prevailing Custom In The Late Ming Dynasty

Entering the late Ming Dynasty, the people had to face the reality of "a great changes", and the whole society in all aspects had the significant changes. These external reflections of changes were the convention and transformation in social style and features. Since the Han Dynasty, especially the formation of the intellectuals'group consciousness in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, the intellectuals as a group concerning about the nation, society and destiny of the country had gradually become a socially accepted way of leading the reality of society.The intellectuals'group led the social atmosphere; also, it was not only leading the prevailing custom of whole society, but also the important measure of social style and features at that time. During the period of social transition in the late Ming Dynasty, the intellectuals'group formed the unique prevailing custom with a modern sense of enlightenment on the basis of the social upheaval; although this prevailing custom had been the fate of being strangled, but its cultural thought was reproduced in the late Qing Dynasty, that was of great historical significance.Through the concrete analyzing of the social upheaval in the late Ming Dynasty, this paper systematically expounds the distinct characteristics and historical destiny of the intellectual's prevailing custom.The first part elaborates the social upheaval of the late Ming Dynasty in detailed: the rapid development of commodity economy and the emergence of capitalism germinate in the economic field; political corruption leading to national chaos in the political field; the besetting by enemies from within and without had put the Ming Dynasty in a desperate position.The second part mainly expounds the representation and characteristics of the intellectual's prevailing custom during the period of the late Ming Dynasty: smashing the bonds of tradition, challenging authority, active thinking, mercantilism and paying much attention to chasing profit, pragmatic spirit, performance of individuality, pursuing freedom, opposing the old morality and advocating a new ethics. The third part explains the historical destiny of the intellectual's prevailing custom in the late Ming Dynasty. These distinct economical, political and cultural factors had caused the formation of the intellectual's prevailing custom in the late Ming Dynasty, and people's minds were very active at that time. Entering the Qing Dynasty, the intellectual's prevailing custom was strangled due to the arrested development of new economic factors. The intellectual's prevailing custom of the late Ming Dynasty had some characteristics of modern Enlightenment, and it strongly influenced the thoughts of the Reformists and the Revolutionaries in the late Qing Dynasty.In this paper, the author attempts to seek the academic innovation based on the integrated results of previous studies. The second part expounds several main features of the intellectual's prevailing custom of the late Ming Dynasty, and some of them are rarely mentioned in the earlier writings, for example, opposing the old morality and advocating a new ethics. Also, the predecessors had researched on the historical destiny of the intellectual's prevailing custom in the late Ming Dynasty from a perspective of the social impact. On this basis, this article will reveal the panorama of the intellectual's prevailing custom including its formation, fate of being strangled and historical reproduction in more detailed; therefore, this paper will enable people to grasp the main connotations of the intellectual's prevailing custom in its totality.