Abstract
The Ming dynasty saw a surge of "the revival of the ancient" in both theory and practice of leisure essays. The revival of the ancient was both value judgment at the level of literature and cross-reference between personality traits and social changes. Essay writers who promoted the revival of the ancient fell into two groups, one comprising members of the learned societies and academies, the one including officials from ministries in the central government. The former advocated a plain style as exemplified by the Song-Dynasty prose, while the latterfavored the archaic style of the Qin and Han dynasties. The different approaches chosen to revive the ancient responded to both internal requirements and external conditions. On the one hand, they took into considerations how the theme, author's situation and attitude, as well as the social status of the author and the reader, were conditioned by the chosen style. On the other hand, the approach to reviving the ancient needed to fulfill the requirements from different socio-political strata to gain control of literary standards, maintain power structure, and seek political reformations.
First Page
98
Last Page
107
Recommended Citation
An, Jiaqi. 2020. "The Revival of the Ancient in Ming-Dynasty Essays: Its Political Appeal and the Chosen Approach." Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art 40, (4): pp.98-107. https://tsla.researchcommons.org/journal/vol40/iss4/19
