Characteristics of Ming and Qing prose

Early Ming prose to Zhu Yuanzhang founding ministers Song Lian, Liu Ji as representative. Song Lian's thesis was based on the Zongjing and his prose was highly accomplished in biography. Liu Ji was a good writer of both poetry and literature, and his prose was characterized by fables and essays. The development of prose and poetry in the middle of the Ming Dynasty was characterized by the heated debates between the former and the latter seven sons and the anti-pre- and latter seven sons, and there were many genres of prose in this period. The "former and latter seven sons" advocated the restoration of antiquity, and advocated the Qin and Han ancient texts alone, which, because of excessive simulation, was denounced by later generations as a "pseudo-style", and only the "latter seven sons" of Zongchen was known for his prose, and his "Reporting Liu Yizhang's Book" is one of the few Ming prose works that is not found in the Ming dynasty. His "Report on Liu Yizhang's Letter" is one of the few good articles in Ming prose. During the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, the "Tang and Song School" emerged, and they inherited the established tradition of honoring the "Eight Great Poets" (Han, Liu, Ou, Zeng, Wang, and Sanshu) since the Southern Song Dynasty, and consciously advocated the Tang and Song prose to counteract the "Former and Later Seven Sons", so the "Former and Later Seven Sons" were the only ones who were famous for prose. He consciously advocated Tang and Song prose, and fought against the "former and latter seven sons", hence the name "Tang and Song School". Its prose made a turnaround in Ming prose, and the most accomplished writer was Gui Youguang. Wanli years of "public security", "Jingling" two schools of prose, writing "spirit". Each has its own characteristics, the direct product of the two literary innovation movement is the creation of prose, the emergence of small prose, which is a development of the traditional prose, representing the achievements of the two schools of prose. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, a large number of small prose pieces appeared in the prose of the mid-Ming Dynasty. Zhang Dai's prose drew on the strengths of various schools and schools, and with the freshness of the "Public Security School" and the coldness and elegance of the "Jingling School," Zhang Dai became a great prose writer of the late Ming Dynasty. At the same time, the "Fuxia" and "Qishe" advocated for the restoration of ancient times, and because they made the ancient academic affairs used for the reality, their prose had a distinctive political tendency among the ancient simulation, and the realism was very strong, such as Zhang Pu's "Tombstones of the Five", and Xia Wanshun's "Letter to the Mother in the Prison", etc., all of which were Mingdao's most thought-provoking and easy-to-follow works of writing. The prose is very easy to think of the masterpiece.

The prose of the Qing Dynasty, initially inherited the Ming Dynasty "Tang and Song School" lineage, the representative writers are Hou Fangwei, Wei Xi and others. Hou Fangwei's prose was pushed as the first. After the middle of the Qing Dynasty, the "Tongcheng School" of prose unified the world and became the authentic ancient literature of the Qing Dynasty. The "Tongcheng School" was known for its rigorous layout and elegant language. It was a new development of the eight great writers of the Tang and Song dynasties in the new situation, and its influence reached as far as the early years of the Republic of China. Representative writers include Fang Zhao, Liu Polaris, Yao Nai, Guan Tong, Mei Zengliang, etc. The parallelism was also very popular in the Qing Dynasty. Chen Weisong in the early Qing Dynasty was a famous writer of ekphrasis. After the middle of the Qing Dynasty, ekphrasis repeatedly competed with ancient texts, and a famous ekphrasis writer, Wang Zhong, appeared. His "Mourning Salt Boat Man" is a very moving piece of work that "describes the feelings that are difficult to write, and contains inexhaustible meanings".

The Ming and Qing dynasties, not in the name of the thinker's prose is worth noting. The Ming dynasty has Jiajing Wanli years of Li Zhi, its prose ideological strong, very rich in agitation, exposing the false Taoism is the most powerful. In the Qing Dynasty, there were Huang Zongxi, Tang Zhen (?) and others in the early Qing Dynasty. People such as Huang Zongxi, Tang Zhen (?), its prose has a strong sense of national consciousness, the feudal emperor, the feudal monarchy fierce attack, for the opening of the people's wisdom, thought enlightenment plays a great role.