A Study Of Hanlin Academy Of The Ming Dynasty

Centered on Yutang Congyu written by Jiao Hong who lived in Ming Dynasty, this thesis addresses the evolvement of Hanlin Academy's position and function in the state affairs of Ming Dynasty. Further, the political and cultural connotations that Hanlin Academy embodied are researched as well.Hanlin Academy in Ming Dynasty inherited the structure of Hanlin Academy since Tang - Song Dynasties. On the basis of this, its system was more complete. It was established for the purpose of respect for scholars. Hanlin officials undertook the functions of consultation, educating emperor and so on. After the prime minister was repealed, Hanlin Academy played an outstanding role in the politics. However, in the period of Yongle, with the building and developing of cabinet, some of Hanlin's duties were substituted. Therefore the position of Hanlin Academy came down a bit. In the period of Zhengtong, as Jingyan was set up, the consultation duty of Hanlin was canceled . With the development of its authority, cabinet established the leadership of Hanlin Academy.According to the implementation of Jingyan system, problems existed at the beginning of jingyan's germination, because the emperor didn't ask for the sake of dignity even though he had doubts, which made Hanlin scholars couldn't teach deeply and thoroughly. Moreover, the opening time of Jingyan could not be ensured in the middle and later periods. Compared with the functions of consultation and government affairs discussion in the early Ming Dynasty , Jingyan had become a piece of worthless paper. This defect hadn't got solved up even at the end of Ming Dynasty. Besides, since the middle and later periods of Ming Dynasty, the emperor hardly ever called his ministers except Jingyan and Chaojiang, With the change of relationship between emperor and ministers, Jingyan served mostly for the purpose of praise but lacked dissuasive effects.Yutang Congyu was written by Jiao Hong who recorded words and deeds of officials in Hanlin Academy from early Ming to the period of Wanli. There were lots of records about Hanlin duties. With references to other historical documents, these duties could be sorted out, such as developing rites and music, compilation of history books , assuming the responsibility as envoy, and so on. Besides, compared with other writings about Hanlin Academy, the characteristic of Yutang Congyu was that there were many records about moral integrity of Hanlin officials. Jiao Hong's criterion for evaluating officials in Hanlin Academy could be revealed by the materials about the relationships among Hanlin, imperor, cabinet and eunuch.In the periods of Jiajing and Wanli which Jiao Hong lived in, the power of cabinet was great, and Hanlin Academy was regarded as its subordinate. Meanwhile, teacher-student relationship between Hanlin and some eunuchs existed because Hanlin had served as eunuch teachers. Since the period of Zhengtong, the status of cabinet and Silijian in the state affairs became prominent. Actually, in the competition between cabinet power and eunuch power, Hanlin Academy was not in an independent position. In addition, the system of Hanlin candidates also had problems since the middle and late periods of Ming. Writing Yutang Congyu Jiao Hong's attention was to exhort officials of Hanlin to posess certain moral integrity.