Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.2, 2020

Ming Dynasty: Formalization of the Classical Literary Canon and Its Significance

(Abstract)

Ye Ye

As an era in which saw the triple superimposition of revival of the past, genre differentiation and printed works, Ming literature, besides being commoners’ literature, had a further important aspect: the overall finalization of classical literary texts. The Ming veneration of the classics and the need for reading promoted the “complete records” of collected compilations. The idea and the practice of inclusive collections compiled by genre derived not only from their predecessors’ view that “In literature, each generation surpasses the last,” but also stimulated a change in this view among Ming writers. The vogue for the reproduction of Song versions by the revived Jiajing printing industry completed the overall “salvage” of the pre-Song literary heritage in a short time. Their formalization of classical literary texts from the Han and Tang on and the Han dynasty’s formalization of pre-Qin texts were both intellectual activities involving “innovating by restoring the ancients.” They constitute two important nodes of the development of Chinese civilization in documentary and conceptual history.