Loss, Nostalgia, and Hope: the Ming-Qing Transition in the Fiction of “the Hazy Crossing Ferryman of Xiaoxiang”

Abstract

Abstract This paper examines the reactions to the trauma of the Ming-Qing dynastic transition in the novellas of a writer known only as “Xiaoxiang mijinduzhe” (The Hazy Crossing Ferryman of Xiaoxiang). His works provide an informative contrast to the more celebrated loyalist literature of the same era: they express unease at foreign rule but do not show an idealistic loyalism to the Ming. Though the Yongle period (1402–1424) of the Ming is held up as a lost golden age, the post-Yongle Ming dynasty is portrayed as an era of corruption and chaos, presided over by incompetent and/or dissolute emperors. The novellas also reflect on the lessons of the transition on a deeper level, questioning the long-standing cultural preference for the civil arts over the martial arts. While the novellas acknowledge the poignancy of the passing of an era, they also strike hopeful notes for the future under the Qing.