As the end of China's feudal society, the Ming society has different characteristics from other dynasties: First, political darkness, strengthening the absolute monarchy. After Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, one person monopolized the political power. In order to consolidate the imperial power, special spy organizations such as Royal Guards and Dongxihuang were set up to monitor state officials and even the people of the whole country. If they are slightly out of line, they will be severely punished. One person breaks the law, implicating nine families. The Minister of Meritorious Service is no exception. They rule by terror. Zhao Yi, a Qing Dynasty man, said: "The ancestors of the Ming Dynasty used heroes to win the world and the established world, that is, they killed everyone in the world. Its cruelty is unprecedented. " (The Twenty-two Biographies of Historical Records, Volume 32) The rulers of the Ming Dynasty also intimidated and imprisoned intellectuals and free thoughts, and strengthened cultural rule. Therefore, in the Ming dynasty (especially in the early Ming dynasty), in order to establish absolute imperial power, literary inquisitions emerged one after another. In order to avoid disasters, it is a fashion for literati to be cautious and independent. Secondly, in the ideological field, Ming Taizu strongly advocated Zhu Cheng's Neo-Confucianism, and the eight-part essay with Zhu Cheng's Neo-Confucianism as the guiding ideology became the only choice for the imperial examination, thus constraining people's thoughts. However, at the same time, the high concentration of imperial power led to the collapse of the ruling group. After the mid-Ming Dynasty, some emperors either built fast houses and used books to fight for water, or they were dissolute, greedy and dissolute. Therefore, in the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Cheng's Neo-Confucianism was everywhere, and his pursuit of money, power and womanhood was everywhere. Third, the commodity economy in the Ming Dynasty was extremely developed, and the seeds of capitalist relations of production broke ground. A large number of citizens joined the society. They have special ideology and values, pragmatic, profit-seeking, open and less rigid thoughts, and become a new group different from scholars and farmers. The above three aspects have had an important influence on the formation of new characteristics of Ming literature.
Literature in the Ming Dynasty has the following characteristics:
First, the status of popular literature such as novels and operas is constantly improving, and various creations are thriving. Among them, the prosperity of novels is the most striking. In particular, the development and stereotypes of Zhang Hui's novels have made the most valuable contribution to China literature. The Ming Dynasty is a glorious period of China's ancient novel creation, and it can also be said that China's ancient novel creation is a period of connecting the past with the future. On the one hand, the novels that appeared in the Song and Yuan Dynasties germinated, grew and matured, on the other hand, they made new creations in many aspects. The so-called "Four Wonders", namely Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, The Journey to the West and Jin Ping Mei, are all immortal masterpieces finally completed in the Ming Dynasty. Vernacular short stories developed on the basis of vernacular novels in Song and Yuan Dynasties also reached a peak in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, represented by Feng Menglong's Sanyan and Ling Mengchu's Erpai. In addition, the creation of classical Chinese novels has also undergone new changes compared with the previous generation. Qu You's Newly Edited Stories of Cutting Lights, Shao's Newly Edited Stories of Searching for Lights are representative works of classical Chinese short stories in Ming Dynasty. Most of the content is "whitewashing boudoir feelings and rhetoric", which mainly tells the young men and women of the citizen class, which is more secular. Stylistically, it is characterized by less discussion and more poems. Some works have strong stories and vivid twists and turns, which provide a lot of material for storytelling books. In China's traditional operas, zaju, legend, Kunqu opera and local operas competed with each other, and a large number of famous writers and works emerged, which reached its climax on the basis of high prosperity in Yuan Dynasty. The mainstream of drama in Ming Dynasty is a legend evolved from Southern Opera in Song and Yuan Dynasties. The appearance of three legends, Ye Jian, Feng Ming and Huansha, in the middle of Ming Dynasty marked the arrival of the legend prosperity period. After that, a large number of playwrights and music theorists appeared, and different schools competed with each other. Compared with the previous generation, the form of the Ming Dynasty zaju also changed greatly, and the structure no longer strictly abides by the four depreciation system, so the creation of short plays rose. Musically, it can be north and south, or even a combination of north and south. The form of singing is also informal, free and flexible, which can be duet, chorus and chorus, with obvious legendary tendency.
Second, there are many literary groups and schools. The combination of literati in the Ming Dynasty changed the pattern of forming circles around or following some people in the past, and formed an atmosphere of ideological unity, such as Taige School, the first seven schools, the Tang and Song Schools, the last seven schools, the public security school, Jingling School, Wujiang School, Linchuan School, Fushe School and Jishe School. Among them are schools of poetry and drama. They are unconventional and controversial. The debates among various schools in Ming Dynasty have distinct characteristics. For example, most of them have their own clear programs and opinions, instead of staying in the same style and similar interests in creation, and have completed the transformation from literary practice to literary theory. Another example is the debate among many schools in the Ming Dynasty, which is centered on "retro" and "repeating the same mistakes". No matter the opinions are very different or the theories are very different, they all take innovation as the starting point, hoping to get rid of the disadvantages of the former and make literary creation reach their recognized standards. Although their achievements are great or small, they all put forward some useful views and opinions from different aspects such as content and form, and made their own contributions to enriching the treasure house of ancient Chinese literary theory and prospering the whole Ming Dynasty literature. Of course, people who are obsessed with literary side issues lack thinking about the fundamental problems of literature; Have a deep insight into the portal, and form gangs; Overkill and go to extremes have obvious adverse effects.
Third, many folk artists and lower-class literati entered the literary world, and the ranks of writers expanded. It is precisely because a large number of lower-class literati have entered the literary world that elegant literature (poetry, prose) and popular literature (drama, novel) have never been integrated before. As can be seen from Qian's poems of past dynasties, there are many street poets and some folk poets who live in humble houses and poor alleys. At the same time, a large number of orthodox writers began to pay attention to and participate in the creation of popular literature, which led to the double changes of "vulgarization" of elegant literature and "elegance" of popular literature.
The fourth is to pursue the independence and subjectivity of literature, take emotion as the standard to evaluate the aesthetic significance and social function of works, and require literature to express true feelings and self-affirmation, so as to realize the expression of individual consciousness and desire. Some writers in Ming Dynasty pointed out that "expressing emotion with emotion" (Xu Wei's Preface to Southern Poems), others emphasized that "true poems are among the people" (Li Mengyang's Preface to Poems), as well as "expressing one's mind directly" advocated by Tang and Song Dynasties, "the theory of childlike innocence" put forward by Li Zhuowu, and "expressing one's soul alone" insisted by Gong 'an School and Jingling School, all of which reflected their concern for Zhu Cheng. These masters are reflected in the dramas of talented people and beautiful women, as well as the romance and world love novels that appeared after the middle of Ming Dynasty. The Peony Pavilion by Tang Xianzu is a very representative work.