Late Ming Dynasty Research Articles

Analytical Study of Polychrome Clay Sculptures in the Five-Dragon Taoist Palace of Wudang, China

During the Ming Dynasty, the Five-Dragon Palace functioned as a royal Taoist temple set atop one of China’s holiest Taoist mountains, Wudang Mountain. Two tower polychrome sculptures with exquisite craftsmanship have remained over the centuries. In this study, the painting materials and the techniques used to construct these sculptures were analyzed through multiple characterization methods, including optical microscope (OM) observations, micro-Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy–energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM−EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), micro-Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (μ−FTIR), and pyrolysis–gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py−GC/MS). The results revealed that the pigments used in these sculptures included red pigments, which were composed of mercury (II) sulfide (cinnabar or vermillion), minium (Pb3O4), and hematite (Fe2O3); green pigments, which included atacamite and botallackite (Cu2Cl(OH)3), and blue pigments, which comprised smalt (CoO·nSiO2) and azurite (Cu3(CO3)2(OH)2). The white base layer was composed of quartz and mica minerals combined with gypsum or plant fiber, and the gold foil was adhered to the surface using heated tung oil. In addition, a special multi−layer technique was applied, with red under the golden gilding, white under the blue layer, and gray and black under the green layer. Drying oil was used as a binder for lead-containing pigments. This study offers substantial proof of reliable techniques to use in the continuing conservation of these sculptures, and it also serves as a foundation to determine if they can be dated to the late Ming or early Qing Dynasty (17th century).

Coupled Pacific Rim megadroughts contributed to the fall of the Ming Dynasty’s capital in 1644 CE

Historical documents provide evidence for regional droughts preceding the political turmoil and fall of Beijing in 1644 CE, when more than 20 million people died in northern China during the late Ming famine period. However, the role climate and environmental changes may have played in this pivotal event in Chinese history remains unclear. Here, we provide tree-ring evidence of persistent megadroughts from 1576 to 1593 CE and from 1624 to 1643 CE in northern China, which coincided with exceptionally cold summers just before the fall of Beijing. Our analysis reveals that these regional hydroclimatic extremes are part of a series of megadroughts along the Pacific Rim, which not only impacted the ecology and society of monsoonal northern China, but likely also exacerbated external geopolitical and economic pressures. This finding is corroborated by last millennium reanalysis data and numerical climate model simulations revealing internally driven Pacific sea surface temperature variations and the predominance of decadal scale La Niña-like conditions to be responsible for precipitation decreases over northern China, as well as extensive monsoon regions in the Americas. These teleconnection patterns provide a mechanistic explanation for reoccurring drought spells during the late Ming Dynasty and the environmental framework fostering the fall of Beijing in 1644 CE, and the subsequent demise of the Ming Dynasty.

Reinforcement and Deacidification for a Textile Scroll Painting (AD 1881) Using the CNF and MgO Suspensions.

The scroll paintings for ancestor trees have been used to inherit the spirit of ancestor worship as a historical record of family development since the late Ming Dynasty in China. A severely degraded scroll painting of an ancestor tree (made of cotton textiles) needs intervention and conservation treatment to mitigate further deterioration. On the basis of the previously reported characterization results for the painting, in this paper, a suspension that is composed of 0.6% cellulose nanofibril (CNF) and nanosized 0.15% MgO in aqueous solvent (denoted as the CNF-MgO susairpension) was prepared. Conventional characterization methods were used to assess the properties of model samples before and after treatment with the CNF-MgO suspension, as well as before and after degradation under two sets of conditions. The results show that the treated model samples are slightly alkaline, given the deposit of alkaline particles, and demonstrate good mechanical properties before and after degradation due to the increase in fiber-to-fiber bond and mitigation of acid-catalyzed hydrolysis. In spite of the non-transparency of CNF and MgO nanoparticles, they have little impact on the optical properties of textiles, as verified by transmittance data and the determination of color changes. This suspension was then used to reinforce and restore the scroll painting in a practical conservation process. The application of CNF and MgO nanoparticles on textile objects investigated in this study would expand our understanding of the conservation of such objects, especially for those that have already become acidic and degraded.

Literati Ingredients in the 17th-Century Chinese Christian Paintings

In this paper, the modification methods of the Chinese Christian painting created by the missionaries in the late Ming Dynasty (1573–1644) were analyzed with the Chinese Catholic studies of the “Song nianzhu guicheng” and the “Tianzhu Jiangsheng Chuxiang Jingjie”. After carefully studying the differences between the Chinese Christian painting and the original European version, the study shows that these Chinese Christian paintings were integrated with the Chinese literati paintings’ elements and literati symbols, which include the “Yudiancun” (raindrop texture stroke), “Pimacun” (hemp-fiber texture stroke), “landscape screen” (painted screens with natural landscapes), and the mark of Chinese famous literati such as Dong Qichang. These adjustments conducted by missionaries aimed to make religious paintings more in line with literati aesthetics, which could build connections between the missionaries and the literati community for proselytization. However, the missionaries neglected that the literati community certainly would not sacrifice the existing social order and the vested interest brought by the current Confucian culture to support new ideas of “liberty” and “equality” in the Catholic doctrine, which caused a huge setback in the missionary work since the Nanjing Teaching Case in 1616. This research makes significant contributions to the understanding of cultural exchanges in the 17th century through a detailed exploration of the adjustments made by missionaries in the visual representations within Chinese Catholic literature.

Missionary as gatekeeper in translation: exploring motivations based on the cases of two missionaries in the late Chinese Ming dynasty (1580s-1640s)

ABSTRACT This article investigates the role of missionaries in translation activities during the last six decades of the Ming dynasty in China and explores the motivations from a sociological perspective. The study identifies three ways in which missionaries carried out the act of gatekeeping, including the alteration of book subjects, the selection of collaborators, and the addition of religious texts. Drawing on Bourdieu’s theory of social practice, the analysis reveals that these gatekeeping behaviours were motivated by the intricate interplay among habitus, field, and capital. The study suggests that missionaries adjusted their habitus to influence the choice of book subjects, carefully selected collaborators to navigate the translation field securely, and incorporated religious texts to enhance their standing in the religious field. Consequently, missionaries functioned as gatekeepers in translation, guided by their habitus and leveraging diverse capitals to advance their position in the social field of the late Ming dynasty, with the ultimate goal of spreading religious culture China.

The Survival Dilemmas of Qinglou Talented Women in the Late Ming Dynasty and Their Encounters with the Patriarchal Order

Abstract During the Ming and Qing Dynasties it was common thought that the Qinglou talented women were not bound by normal human relationships and women’s virtues because they lived outside the patriarchal order. Chased after by male bigwigs in the society, they mingled at upper-class male playing places and obtained higher reputations because of their outstanding talent. However, they held a very contradictory position because, especially in the Ming dynasty, women’s virtues were still regarded as an important standard of female evaluation in the society. On the one hand, they faced dilemmas in their living conditions, and on the other, there was a subtle interaction between their living space and the patriarchal clan system – this also occurred because of changes created by the patriarchal clan system and social rules, which exerted a continuous influence on the way a female could survive in the later imperial period. Based on historical and literary documents such as jottings, novels, and unofficial history of Ming and Qing Dynasties, this essay aims at analyzing the living space of these talented women.

明末清初宣府镇蒙古归附武官颇氏家族事迹考

In the late Ming Dynasty, a family of the Po, who was a Mongolian military officer, emerged in Xuanfu. At first, they served as “Yi Ding(Tatar Soliders)” in Jiubian(nine-frontier fortification system of the Ming Dynasty). Unlike the Mongolians who joined the Wei Suo system in the early Ming Dynasty, the Po family served as private armed servants of Ming Dynasty border defense generals. They not only serve as frontline soldiers for border defense generals, but also serve as Mongolian language translators for them. In short, they have a lot of effectiveness.At the same time, they were incorporated into the military status of the garrison in Xuanfu, and became officials in the camp step by step from the positions of garrison and guerrilla.Its members took part in a series of eastern expeditions and western wars in the late Ming Empire, such as the Imjin War, and participated in the battles of Jigsan and Ulsan to expel the Japanese army, while the father and son of Pou Tingxiang participated in the war between the Ming Dynasty and the Later Jin Dynasty and sacrificed their lives on the battlefield. After the change of Dynasties in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the members of the Po family chose to become officials in the Qing Dynasty for the sake of family interests, and tried to let the next generation continue to engage in the army and maintain their glory. However, due to the collapse of the former Ming Dynasty’s military officer system, the Qing Dynasty’s vigilance against the former Ming Dynasty’s generals, and the characteristics of the Qing Dynasty’s military system and military officer system itself, the Po family did not get the same position of power as the former Ming.In the end, like other generals on the Jiubian(nine-frontier), the former Ming generals, who were born as adherents, gradually withered away in the Qing Dynasty.

Scenery deconstruction: a new approach to understanding the historical characteristics of Nanjing cultural landscape

The “Eight Scenic Views Paintings” represent crucial visual materials for investigating the history of cultural landscapes. However, traditional methods of interpreting materials struggle to discern the inherent connections between different landscape elements. This study proposes an approach for deconstructing historical images, taking the example of the Forty Scenic Views in the Late Ming Dynasty in Nanjing, China. To explore the co-occurrence structure, hierarchical clustering, and correlation features among various elements, various digital humanities quantification methods were applied, including spatial analysis of ArcGIS, co-occurrence and clustering of KH Coder, and correlation analysis of SPSS. This study reveals the characteristics of the landscape construction of Nanjing in the Late Ming: natural landscape as the foundation, artificial landscape as the core, and advocating tradition as the fashion. It also uncovers the landscape order: mountains, waters, and scenic views interweaved and coexisted, as well as nature and culture intertwined and clustered. In addition, multiple information graphs of the subordinate and co-occurrence relationships of 20 landscape elements were constructed, 5 landscape paradigms were extracted, and 36 pairs of related relationships were discovered, deepening the historical understanding of the urban landscape construction of Nanjing in the Late Ming. This paper puts forward the idea of analyzing historical images by digital method, which provides some essential and detailed historical basis for explaining the value of cultural landscape heritage and shaping contemporary urban landscape.

Literary and historical continuity: the use of literary creativity techniques in notes to historical materials of the late Ming Dynasty

Literary and historical continuity: the use of literary creativity techniques in notes to historical materials of the late Ming Dynasty

Political Crisis in the Late Ming dynasty

The Ming Empire is one of the greatest states that existed from the 14th to the 17th centuries. However, 1644 was marked by the fall of the empire and the subsequent seizure of the throne by the Manchus. In this regard, the question arises: what caused the centralized state to fall to a group of rebels and the invaders from the north? The purpose of this study is to identify the main opposing parties of the political crisis in the late Ming Dynasty, study the dynamics of their interactions, and reconceptualize the context of its fall, moving away from the ideologically driven narrative of “faithful officials vs the cunning eunuchs” to delineating the real sides and process of the political struggle. The study covers the time frame from 1597 to 1644. By analyzing the two sources of “Ming Shi” (The Official History of the Ming Dynasty) and “Ming Shilu” (Veritable Records of the Ming Dynasty) and their reflected priorities, the political process during this period was studied, thus answering the questions raised in the research.

A study of the Huayan Chan 華嚴禪 thought

ABSTRACT This article delves into the development of Huayan Chan through three distinct periods – its emergence, flourishing and continuation – while analysing its characteristics in the history of Chinese Buddhism. In its inception, Huayan Chan originated within the Southern school of Chan. Subsequently, the five schools of Chan that followed exhibited varying degrees of consideration for Huayan teachings. They employed Huayan’s perspectives on ‘principle’ (li 理) and ‘phenomena’ (shi 事) in special ways, marking a significant developmental phase in the Huayan Chan trend. As time progressed, particularly during the late Ming dynasty, the integration of Chan and Huayan teachings by the four great masters facilitated a comprehensive amalgamation of Huayan with diverse Buddhist schools. By exploring the historical context of Huayan Chan, this article aims to provide a definition: Huayan Chan refers to a mode in which figures associated with Chan Buddhism utilize Huayan thought as a theoretical model or methodology to interpret their teachings and practices. It represents a fusion of Huayan doctrinal principles with Chan meditation practices, and the gradual cultivation of Huayan with the sudden enlightenment of Chan, thereby enhancing Chan meditation in a manner, which distinguishes it from traditional Chan Buddhism.

Taxation and Peasant Rebellion: Evidence from Late Ming Dynasty China

Taxation and Peasant Rebellion: Evidence from Late Ming Dynasty China

明末辽东战事题材时事小说中的朝鲜叙写: 以《辽海丹忠录》《镇海春秋》为中心

The current affairs novels of the late Ming Dynasty 〈Liao Hai Dan Zhong Lu〉 and 〈Zhen Hai Chun Qiu〉 describe the competition between the Ming and Jin forces in the Liaodong region at the end of the Ming Dynasty. They largely involve Joseon's diplomatic stance, internal affairs and military affairs. This phenomenon of other countries appearing in Chinese classical novels is novel. On the surface, the plots of the two novels are very similar, but after careful analysis, it can be found that the two works contain different emotional colors. First of all, in terms of Joseon's stance, 〈Liao Hai Dan Zhong Lu〉 emphasizes more the difficulties and helplessness of Joseon sandwiched between the Ming and Jin sides, while 〈Zhen Hai Chun Qiu〉 reveals a side that is too rich in the author's personal subjective emotions. Then in terms of Joseon's internal affairs, 〈Liao Hai Dan Zhong Lu〉 and 〈Zhen Hai Chun Qiu〉 agree on the nature of this political change and the Ming court's handling strategy. Finally, there is the military aspect of Joseon. In the text, the novelist devises a plot that leads to war due to the mistakes of Joseon officials. The novelist also uses literary works to express the Ming Dynasty's concerns about the situation and its continued hope for an alliance with Joseon. Therefore, this article takes these two novels as the research object, trying to explore the literary understanding of “Joseon” in the current affairs novels of the late Ming Dynasty, and explore the underlying motivations of the novelists' creations and the inspiration for us today.

The Interaction and Clash of Ideas between Matteo Ricci and the Taizhou School

This article explores the interactions between the Taizhou school and Jesuit missionaries during the late Ming dynasty. It reveals the intellectual exchanges between these influential groups in fields such as philosophy and religion and their significance in spreading Western knowledge to the East. The article begins by introducing the complete process of exchanges between Taizhou school representatives like Jiao Hong, Li Zhi, Zhu Shilu, Tang Xianzu, Xu Guangqi, and Jesuit missionaries including Matteo Ricci. It delves into how these interactions influenced the development of their respective thoughts and academic theories. The exchange between the two groups was not a perfect fusion and was filled with contradictions, conflicts, and struggles, particularly on issues such as human nature and cosmology. By studying this process of exchange, we can understand how the intellectual elite of late Ming China accepted and reflected upon Western thought. It also reveals how Western intellectuals used this exchange to comprehend and appreciate Chinese philosophy and culture.

A Study of Fan Yupin's Transport of Military Provisions to the North Frontier during the Early Qing Dynasty

<p>清初內務府設立的官商中，最著名的是范氏家族。此家族自明末范永斗已活躍於滿蒙地區，清初則繼續經營邊疆貿易，在雍乾朝替朝廷北運軍糧。康雍乾年間與準噶爾戰爭，消耗鉅額軍費，其中以運輸軍糧為大宗。康熙時官運米糧，每石達40至120兩，而范毓馪運糧每石則在30兩以下，節省甚多銀兩，於財政上有重要意義。過去日本與大陸學界已有些許范毓馪的研究，探討他運米、採辦人參、經營鹽業、買辦洋銅等事業。然，近年來隨著中國第一歷史檔案館大量開放滿漢文檔案，將可補充、展開過去的研究。本文將討論范家在明清之際的邊境貿易，范毓馪的生平與官商角色、運糧的路線、數量，以及米糧來源等面向。范毓馪受到雍正皇帝的信任，故乾隆朝仍由其子侄輓運軍糧。最後探討范毓馪的政商關係，包括他被傅爾丹、伊都立需索銀兩，以及兵部尚書通智控告盤剝商人，提議北路運糧改為官運等。</p> <p> </p><p>The extended Fan family clan stands out as the most famous official merchant-household established by the Imperial Household Department during the earliest stages of the Qing Dynasty. One member of the family, Fan Yongdou, had been active in the Manchu-Mongolian regions since the late Ming Dynasty, and his descendants continued to engage in border trade during the early Qing Dynasty, delivering military supplies to the north frontier for the imperial court during the Yongzheng and Qianlong reigns. The military expenses, most especially the transport of military supplies drained down the coffers during the wars with the Dzungar Khanate in the Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong periods. In the Kangxi era, the official price for transporting rice was 40 to 120 taels per picul, while Fan Yupin transported it for under 30 taels per picul, resulting in substantial savings in silver that had a significant financial impact. Past studies of Fan Yupin’s activities in Japan and mainland China have explored his business of transporting rice, purchasing ginseng, overseeing the salt industry, and compradoring foreign copper. However, in recent years, with the extensive opening of Manchu and Chinese archives at the First Historical Archives of China, it is now possible to supplement and expand on previous research. This article will discuss the border trade of the Fan family during the transition from the Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, Fan Yupin’s life and his role as an official merchant, the routes and quantities of rice he transported, and the sources of this rice. Fan Yupin gained the trust of Emperor Yongzheng, which allowed his sons and nephews to continue carrying military supplies in the Qianlong era. Finally, we will explore the political and commercial relationships of Fan Yupin, including Fu Erdan and Yiduli ‘s demand that he gave them silver, as well as the accusation by the Minister of War Tongzhi that he was exploiting other merchants, which lead Tongzhi to propose a switch to official transport for the military rice along the northern route.</p> <p> </p>

Study on the Realities of the Life of Boudoir Painters in the Background of Late Ming Feudalism

The Late Ming Dynasty was a period of unprecedented development for women's painting in ancient times, which surpassed all previous generations of women painters in terms of the number of painters and the number of paintings, especially in terms of the language and form of paintings. women painters. As a representative of the late Ming boudoir painters, Wen Chuan's paintings superficially depict a picture of the "small world" of daily life, but hidden behind her "small world" is her conscious creative attitude and keen gender awareness in the context of the feudal society of the late Ming. However, behind her "small world" is her more conscious creative attitude and keen gender awareness in the context of the late Ming feudal society. In this paper, we focus on aesthetics, sociology, and art history from an interdisciplinary perspective to explore the real life and social status of Wen Hsiun in the context of the late Ming feudal society.

Matteo Ricci and the New Horizon of the Intellectual World in late Ming: A Response to Prof. XIE Wenyu’s Article “The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven and the Differences in Concerns between Chinese and Western Thinking”

With the publication and circulation of The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven by Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) since the late Ming Dynasty, related criticisms abound. On the whole, the accusations against this book are no more than three: invoking backward medieval theosophy and science, misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the indigenous Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, and a missionary hermeneutics in the style of "for my own use". This article is a response to Prof. XIE Wenyu's article on The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven. The article responds to each of the points in Prof. Xie Wenyu's article from ten aspects. The article argues that Matteo Ricci and The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven played a positive role in the cultural exchanges between China and the West and the development of Confucianism in the late Ming Dynasty. If this role is not considered to be significant, the reason lies not in Matteo Ricci himself, but in Confucianism itself.

From Three-in-One Doctrine to the Religion of Three-in-One: Lin Chaoen’s syncretic religion

In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, Lin Chaoen, who was also called the ‘Two heresies of Minzhong’ with Li Zhi, was famous for advocating the thought of ‘Three-in-One Doctrine’ and establishing the Religion of Three-in-One. In the past, the study of Lin Chaoen and the Religion of Three-in-One was basically based on religious study, and his identity as a scholar was ignored. Therefore, this article mainly analyses Lin Chaoen’s thought of ‘Three-in-One Doctrine’ from the field of philosophy and reveals the close relationship between his theory of three religions and the formation of the Religion of Three-in-One. Lin Chaoen’s thought originated from Yangming’s mind philosophy; thus, the emergence of the Religion of Three-in-One also means that the traditional Confucianism has the possibility of becoming a folk religion.Contribution: This article examines Lin Chaoen’s thought of ‘Three-in-One Doctrine’ from the perspective of philosophical theory, and reveals that the essence of his thought of ‘Three-in-One Doctrine’ is Yangming’s mind philosophy. Moreover, this article analyses the transformation process from the thought of ‘Three-in-One Doctrine’ to the Religion of Three-in-One, and reveals that the Religion of Three-in-One is a new type of folk religion developed from an academic group.

Integration of Chinese and Western Art in Late Ming Dynasty: Imitation and Innovation with Wu Bin as an Example

The late Ming Dynasty witnessed an art exchange between two distinct civilizations, the East and the West, which served as a microcosm of globalized art history in China. In the context of numerous Western religious paintings introduced to China by Jesuit missionaries during the late Ming Dynasty, whether Chinese artists who painted in ink at the time borrowed Western painting techniques in their paintings has become a subject of discussion among contemporary scholars. To further explain the integration triggered by this artistic exchange, the research analyses the attitudes of Ming society towards foreign painting. Furthermore, the study conducts the visual comparison methodology to identify the elements of Western painting that were incorporated into Chinese painting during this period, centering on the works of artist Wu Bin (1550-1643) and employing specific information as corroborative substantiation. The results of the study indicate that late Ming society did not exhibit overt animosity towards Western art and that Wu Bins paintings contain discernible Western painting inspirations. Yet, these factors did not impede the prevalence of indigenous artistic and aesthetic inclinations in his oeuvre.

Two Approaches to Augustine’s Theory of the Trinitarian Image in Ming and Qing China

In some of the earliest Chinese works written by Catholic missionaries in the late Ming Dynasty, St. Augustine became associated with the mystery of the Trinity. When explaining the Trinity to Chinese believers, missionaries would often use an analogy of the mens (mind) and its activities in Augustine’s theory of Imago Dei, drawing parallels between “the One” and “the Three”. In the Ming and Qing periods, Augustine’s mental analogy gave rise to two approaches: the “Augustinian-Ignatian” and the “Augustinian-Thomistic”. The former, which was the mainstream interpretation, linked “Mind: memory-understanding-love” to “God: the Father-the Son-the Holy Spirit”, using “the word generated by memory” to represent “the Son begotten by the Father” and “love proceeded from memory and understanding” as an analogy to “the Holy Spirit proceeded from both the Father and the Son”. The latter, more of a minority interpretation, correlated “mind-understanding-love” to “the Father-the Son-the Holy Spirit”, using “word generated by mind” to represent “the Son generated by the Father”, and “love proceeded from mind and word” as an analogy to “the Holy Spirit proceeded from both the Father and the Son”. The former was mainly adhered to by the Jesuits and the Augustinians, while the latter was favored by the Dominicans. This article examines both approaches and critiques of Augustine’s theory of the Trinitarian image in Ming and Qing China.