The Prosperity And Decline Of Print In The Late Ming Dynasty

Ming Dynasty Hongwu years, people shall not alter their household registration freely, in which situation, no one would move to another city unless allowed by the government. This system began to change in the next period of Wanli. In these years, due to Emperor showed no interests in his political duties, so the officials neither promoted nor removal, which led to a loose in economic and political system. So the farmers went to cities to work in the ceramics, silk workshop to earn remuneration during their rest time. These labors brought a considerable progress in the development of commodity economy of the Ming dynasty. Meanwhile, late in the Ming dynasty, some new viewpoint had been made to question the position of Confucius. Not Confucius but everyone’s heart became the standard of value, which expanded people’s mind.The development of commodity economy and the mind of self-liberation promoted the development of literature and arts, which gave birth to a typical citizen literature--novels, drama, poetry, liquor leaves, travel maps. The increase in number of readers led to the development of the publishing industry, so citizen literature is fertile ground for the prosperity of woodcut in late Ming dynasty. The print can be divided into five categories, scenic landscapes, biography, illustration of embroidered portrait and liquor leaves.An important reason of the prosperity of print was that more and more famous literary intellectuals joined in and brought tremendous vitality and vigor to this art in this period. And painters and carvers were much closer with each other, which ensured the birth of good works. Almost all of these prints were illustrations attached to the text. These were the strong characteristics of the prints in those times. These prints also affected the development of art in Asia, particularly in Japan. And then the Japanese ukiyo-e nutrition had been assimilated by Western artists, which had yielded fruitful result. But in the same period in Europe, prints had a much longer life than that in China, and this phenomenon shall be worthy of thoroughly thought.