Research on Ming literature gathers momentum
A performance of the “Sweet Dream in the Garden,” a highlight of Tang Xianzu’s Peony Pavilion Photo: CFP
The Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) was one of the major periods in the development of Chinese literature. The poetry, essays, operas, fiction, and other works written during this period shine brightly in the history of Chinese literature.
More reasonable positioning
Ming literature constitutes a link in Chinese literary history. However, influenced by the concept that “each dynasty has its own representative forms of literature,” previous research had a rather one-sided evaluation of Ming Dynasty literature. It was believed that Ming poetry and essays were mediocre, while fiction and operas were outstanding. Scholars used to pay little attention to poems and essays, but much to fiction and operas. In recent years, this academic positioning has changed a lot.
According to Dong Naibin, a professor from the College of Liberal Arts at Shanghai University, many researchers have supplemented and corrected the old statement that “each dynasty has its own representative forms of literature.” This is not a complete denial of the old theory, but meant to arouse new academic reflections, seeking a more reasonable position for research into Ming literature.
In the past 20 years, research on Ming poems and essays has made remarkable accomplishments and turned into one of the most active fields throughout ancient literary research. Huang Lin, a professor from the Research Center for Chinese Ancient Literature of Fudan University, suggested that we should not rush to argue which genre is the mainstream of Ming literature, nor should we hurry to judge the value and status of different literary styles. Instead, we must follow historical facts and uphold scientific views of literary history. Efforts should be put into distinguishing the characteristics of Ming poems from Tang (618–907) and Song (960–1279) poems, and identifying the innovative and shining points of Ming essays different from those of the Eight Great Literary Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties, so as to sum up the historical attributes and literary value of Ming poetry and prose. This is an urgent task and historical responsibility laid on this generation of researchers.
Zhang Yinpeng, a professor from the College of Liberal Arts at Shanghai University, has been engaged in researching and compiling literature about Qing (1644–1911) poetry and essays for many years, and is familiar with the close relationship linking the literature of the Ming and Qing dynasties. He highlighted the connection between the poetics of the Ming and Qing dynasties. For example, He Jingming, a famous scholar in early Ming, categorized qigu [seven-character ancient verse] into “early Tang style” and “Du Fu style,” leading to the prosperity of the creation of “Meicun style” in the Qing Dynasty. For another example, Li Panlong, a renowned late-Ming scholar, argued that the Tang Dynasty did not have wugu [five-character ancient verse]. While most Ming scholars disagreed with the statement, the Qing writer Wang Shizhen understood what Li meant.
New research paradigms
Against the backdrop where scholars of Ming literature have attained certain results in the fields of stylistic research, textual research, literary thought, literary comment, and literary classicization, changes in research methods will generate new highlights to the overall research of Ming literature. In terms of exploiting modern scientific and technological achievements, scholars have managed to integrate ancient literary research with big data technology to develop a big data platform for exploring Ming literature.
Xu Yongming, a professor from the School of Humanities at Zhejiang University, said that the construction of “the Big Data Platform for the Literary Wisdom of the Ming Dynasty” borrows from the concept of knowledge graphs and tries to map and “intelligentize” the data and research results of Ming literature. The project employs a range of big data technologies, including quantitative statistics, location query, query clustering, spatial analysis, data association, network analysis, machine indexing, crowd-funding and crowd-sourcing, and version comparison.
The introduction of big data is highly instrumental in Ming literary research. Zuo Dongling, director of the Research Center of Chinese Poetry at Capital Normal University, said that a lot of time and energy are needed in traditional research on ancient literature when searching and collecting anthologies of Ming writers, investigating literati’s travels and social contacts, constructing the literary field, and computing the use of imagery. The application of the big data platform greatly reduces the difficulty of document statistics, providing effective data available to scholars in a short time. Consequently, researchers can devote more energy to text interpretation, connotation generalization, the revelation of historical relevance, and the discovery and identification of ancient classics, thereby promoting the transformation and renewal of research paradigms.
Changes in the research methods of Ming literature are also manifested in cross-over studies. At present, the new academic growth points of Ming literature are mainly concentrated in the cross-disciplinary fields between Ming literature and image history, intellectual history, economic history, and other disciplines. These studies as a whole show a solid and steady style. Despite this, a lot of confusion also appeared in the process of transdisciplinary research.
Rao Longsun, a professor from the College of Liberal Arts at Shanghai University, concluded that the interdisciplinary research of Ming literature should be targeted at probing deeper into its relationship with other fields. Multidisciplinary research itself is only an avenue, not the ultimate destination. No matter what method is adopted to study Ming literature, the ultimate goal is to return to literature itself.
Edited by YANG LANLAN