The Ming Dynasty was an era that paid great attention to tradition, and the situation was quite similar to that of the Han Dynasty. People in the Han Dynasty attached importance to tradition and made great efforts to sort out classics because the cultural tradition was broken by Qin Shihuang's burning books and burying Confucianism. The restoration of the Ming Dynasty was due to the interruption of the tradition of the Yuan Dynasty. People habitually think that "poetry retro" rose in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, so the reason can only be found in the history of the middle of the Ming Dynasty. In fact, the retro consciousness can be said to be consistent with the next generation. Although the rule of the Yuan Dynasty was only a hundred years in history, it was a long time for individual life, and the lives of three or four generations disappeared in this history. For the traditional Han literati class, the demise of a regime, even if it dies in the hands of the Hu people and is replaced by the Hu people's regime, seems acceptable, and they can completely bow to the new Hu people's regime. However, as the break of the traditional Confucian culture on which they depend, they cannot tolerate it. Hao Jing, a famous Confucian scholar in the early Yuan Dynasty, famously said, "If you can do the way of China, you will be the master of China." Although the rulers of Yuan Dynasty "followed China's way" in culture and thought, they turned Neo-Confucianism into a scholar-bureaucrat, and the Han scholar-bureaucrats partially accepted this regime. But after all, this regime is too thick, and in terms of customs, it has left the wind of the Hu people, which is the so-called "changing the customs of Hu into the system of China". It is absolutely unacceptable for Han people to accept brothers' wives, sons, fathers and concubines. The humiliation of "changing the ocean into summer" in culture and the humiliation of ethnic discrimination in politics have caused heavy mental depression of Han literati. Therefore, as soon as Zhu Yuanzhang overthrew the rule of the Yuan Dynasty, he immediately banned Hu Yu and Hu's surname. Wang Guangyang wrote a poem entitled "Imperial edict decreed that thistle clothes should be restored to the Tang Dynasty", which said: "When the sun shines, Qingyun will build a chapter, and the officials will urge you to pay homage. I have heard for a long time that the river is flat and the whole thistle is flat, and I prefer Tang costumes. " I can see that the literati were very happy to see the Korean clothes again that day. However, although the Han scholar-officials at that time had the consciousness of "reviving the past", they were unable to do so because of "a small town with a thin livelihood". It was not until Chenghua, after more than 100 years' recuperation, that the economy began to prosper. "China is old only after the customs of Hu". It can be said that in the late Ming Dynasty, the literati class had a complex of Han and Tang Dynasties. Although they talk more about the Han and Tang Dynasties in their poems, such as Song Lian, Wang Yi, Zhang Yining, Zhu Tong, Bei Qiong and Su Boheng in the early Ming Dynasty, they are all talking about the people who wrote Tang poems in the Han and Wei Dynasties, but they really yearn for that prosperous climate in their bones. For example, Yang Shiqi, an important official of Taige, wrote a song "The Tang people are drunk and return to the picture as a golden bachelor": "Six handsome men leave the room and get drunk and see the prosperous Tang Dynasty." From here, we can also see that his ideal of assistant minister is the reappearance of the prosperous Tang dynasty. The reason is that the Ming Dynasty has been troubled by the Hu people. Although it once won the world on behalf of the Hu people, in the last 200 years, the Hu people have always been a big worry to it. Even the emperor was taken away by the Hu people and finally lost power in the hands of the Hu people. Due to the long-term oppression by the powerful military forces of the Hu people, the national consciousness of the literati class and the dream of "recovering the old things" and restoring the prosperity of the Han and Tang Dynasties are extremely strong. Once economic conditions permit, the wind of retro will break out. That is, as Wang Kun said: "The territory of the Han Dynasty was seized before the Tang and Song Dynasties. This solid luck is due to the grace of the court. "
The two "movements" that happened at both ends of Eurasia almost at the same time were both "retro" movements in the cultural field, and they both rebelled against reality in the name of "retro", which is their similarity. However, there are essential differences between the two. The Renaissance in Europe was a cultural revolution of the emerging bourgeoisie, while the retro movement in China in the Ming Dynasty was actually a cultural movement within the feudal society. The European Renaissance has a long time, great influence, many participants and many fields (art and architecture, style and appreciation, education and urban culture, etc.). ) That China Ming Dynasty retro movement can't compare with it. It is also "retro". The European Renaissance fully inherited and utilized the essence of ancient human thoughts on humanity and secularism and developed it. Although China's retro movement in Ming Dynasty has a certain positive significance in attacking Tiger style, it is blindly retro, replacing the reasonable inheritance of literary heritage with the simulation of style and French style. As a result, we have embarked on the road of formalism, and cultural undertakings have not developed, but have regressed.
Criticism and absorption of tradition, rejection of dross and inheritance of Excellence, and absorption of Excellence in other countries and national cultures (such as ancient Greek mythology, etc.). ), so that the European Renaissance originated in Italy has a strong vitality. However, the retro movement in China in the Ming Dynasty, blindly retro, replaced reasonable inheritance with simulation, inevitably led to a short life span and had little impact on future generations.
Another important difference is that the European Renaissance was open, with the participation of European countries and natural scientists, the wisdom of ancient sages and the exploration of today's scholars, and the mind was liberated as never before; However, the retro movement in China in the Ming Dynasty was limited to the literary field. At that time, China's society was still quite closed, and even the secret service directly controlled by the supreme ruler appeared, and the feudal consciousness of society was further strengthened. What some literati can do is to escape from reality and resist passively, but they can't carry out a reform movement. Although in the Song Dynasty (A.D. 1279), there was also the Song Dynasty retro movement led by Ouyang Xiu and Wang Anshi, and even the Tang Dynasty ancient prose movement led by Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan as early as the Tang Dynasty, for these reasons, it had little impact on the whole society at that time, leaving only some poems with different styles at that time. The reasons are worth pondering by people in today's reform and opening up.
Later, when the Manchu entered the customs, the national ideological struggle first covered up the retro trend of thought, and the Daxing literary inquisition in the Manchu killed their thoughts, which made the just-started ideological liberation movement stillborn. If Wang Yangming's theory of mind is regarded as the beginning of the ideological emancipation movement, it will be only half a century before the demise of the Ming Dynasty. It is impossible for such an idea to develop enough to influence politics in such a short time. It has been hundreds of years since the western thought of freedom and democracy became a reality. If the Ming Dynasty lasted for 50 years, great thinkers might have been born in China, but China's ideological liberation was abruptly stopped by the invasion of Manchuria. With the disdainful efforts of these wise saints, Kangxi Qianlong and China finally entered the dark age of slavery and lifelessness. ...