(Continued from the previous issue)
First, the historical and cultural development process and background of the Ming Dynasty
When Zhu Yuanzhang's ideal empire began to be founded, it was also to crack down on corrupt officials and corrupt officials by torture and joint reporting, but the effect of such punishment was not obvious, but it caused a gap between the monarchs and the more distant distance, when Zhu Yuanzhang died in 1398 AD, the original crown prince had already entered Huangquan earlier, and according to the method of passing on the long lineage, the throne was directly inherited by the emperor's grandson Zhu Yunjiao.
Unfortunately, this emperor's grandson had no political experience at all, although he also obviously felt the pressure of being weak, but he wanted to rely on the authority of the imperial throne to take back the military power into his own hands, and wanted to weaken the power of the kings of the various clans by means of cutting the clans, and sure enough, Zhu Di, the King of Yan stationed in the north, rebelled a year later, he took the place of his nephew in the name of "Qing Junfang", after 3 years of civil war, as for Zhu Yunjiao's body, there have been no whereabouts, there are various rumors, some say that he died when he was killed in a fire in the palace. It is also said that he fled to a certain place in Nanyang.
After Zhu Di seized the throne, he claimed to be Ming Chengzu, changed his course, and adopted a series of measures, claiming to be to rectify the chaos and completely overthrow all the principles and policies originally formulated by his father Zhu Yuanzhang.
On the other hand, he specially built the Dabao'en Temple for his father Zhu Yuanzhang and Empress Ma in Nanjing, and this time he also visited this site in Nanjing, and the glazed tiles in the above picture are the relics of this temple, which shows the scale and luxury of the time.
The Ming Dynasty was the last Han court 600 years ago, Zhu Di grew up in the rain of swords, guns and swords, with rich combat experience and broad goals, he still had the ambition to restore the prosperity of the Han and Tang Dynasties, even if the national strength had not been completely restored, he disregarded Zhu Yuanzhang's will and led the army into Annam. Some people interpret this battle as a continuation of the pursuit of Zhu Yunjiao, but from the analysis of Zhu Di's temperament, such a possibility is not very likely.
Annam, as a vassal state of the former dynasty, has always paid tribute and claimed to the Central Plains government, but when Meng Yuan had no time to take care of it, he took the opportunity to go out independently, and could not compete with the Ming army that had been fighting for many years, the initial Ming army marched extremely smoothly, and soon conquered most of the territory, Zhu Di Nai classified today's northern Vietnam as a Chinese province, but later the Vietnamese could not resist head-on at all, so they adopted guerrilla tactics, reduced to zero, and harassed everywhere, and the Chinese expeditionary force faced a subtropical humid climate environment, and most of the soldiers were dissatisfied In addition to the difficulties of communication with the interior, the supply of supplies was continuously blocked, the logistics supply was not continued, and the situation of the expeditionary army fell into a state of stale confrontation, which had not been completely resolved until Zhu Di's death in 1424.
Zhu Di was stationed in the north as the King of Yan, and his vigilance against the northern nomads never relaxed, nor did he believe in his father's policy of non-intervention. After the Ming Dynasty was firmly seated, he personally led a large army to conquest the Mongol Yuan territories that were peeking into the Central Plains, and he fought against Mongolia five times in his lifetime, two of which even crossed the Krullen River in the territory of today's Mongolian Republic.
Before Zhu Di, the Han Dynasty had experience in conquest of the Xiongnu, but there had never been a reigning monarch who personally led a large army on such a labor expedition, and Zhu Di's conquest was by no means a show, and the troops of the Northern Expedition were about 250,000 people at a time. It can be seen that Zhu Di's ambition is to solve the security problems of the northern border once and for all, we now see the Great Wall, of which the important large-scale restoration and connection were also completed during the Ming Dynasty, but the contradiction with the nomads has not been properly resolved, in the last conquest of the Mongol expedition to the south, Zhu Di died of illness near the Duolunor in today's Inner Mongolia.
Zhu Di also did something that later generations were proud of, that is, on the basis of the Yuan Capital, he rebuilt the imperial court and city walls of the Ming Dynasty, and he moved the political center of the government to Beijing in 1421 AD, calling Nanjing the "Liudu"; under his supervision, after 12 years of overall construction, using 100,000 skilled craftsmen from all over the country, the number of laborers reached millions, and the built Beijing city wall was 40 feet high and 14 miles around, becoming the most important magnificent building in Chinese history and culture.
Fu Zuoyi also saved the ancient city from the baptism of war, and finally the uprising peacefully preserved the original appearance of the ancient city. Until 1962, because to cater to the development of the city, to smooth the traffic of the city, the city wall was demolished, the ruins of the city wall were replaced by a ring, at both ends of this ring, we can still see today, only the front gate and the di'an gate, two fortress-like buildings still exist, there are several floors of watchtowers, as if to commend the vitality of China's life in history, this building from the 15th century to the present, has experienced a lot of wind and frost in various world events and chaos.
Due to the grandeur of this building, when the rulers of the Ming Dynasty were overthrown, this building was continued to be used and preserved by successors, compared with the buildings we often mention in history: Daming Palace, Weiyang Palace, Changle Palace, etc., this Forbidden City is the only large-scale royal building that we can see and preserve relatively intact, which is both a kind of luck and a helplessness.
In addition, the scale of the building is also more than the previous historical records of various types of palaces, Zhu Di ordered the construction of the palace was originally called the Forbidden City, and later changed to the Forbidden City, the buildings inside are all preserved intact, there are 9,000 houses, and then there are new additions, to the Qing Dynasty rule, and then carried out large-scale renovation, the existing Forbidden City has become the largest display of traditional Chinese architecture.
In addition to the above few things, Zhu Di also changed Zhu Yuanzhang's management method, that is, the North-South Grand Canal created by the Mongols, after Zhu Di took the throne, he also widened and dredged it, dug the river deeper, and increased the construction of sluice and dams to improve its efficiency, and the effect it brought was that the smooth flow of north-south traffic played a great role in promoting the development of the northern economy.
2. Cultural and artistic characteristics of the Ming Dynasty
In the manufacture and development of jade, because of the convenience of transportation between the north and the south, the production and popularization of jade has brought greater influence, but also for the popularization of jade in the official field has played a role in promoting, after Zhu Di took the throne, in contrast to his father Zhu Yuanzhang's cruel means of government for corrupt officials, the jade virtue conduct as the way of the official, the resulting jade belt is an indispensable part of the official dress, in the official uniform configuration reached the most widely used, the most stringent regulations.
The use of jade belt plates for official uniforms was not created by the Ming Dynasty, but was implemented from the Tang Dynasty, but in the Ming Dynasty, it developed to the peak of glory, the number of excavations was large, the style was relatively uniform, the materials were exquisite, the carving was exquisite, and a certain norm was formed.
Today we also find such a jade belt from the archaeological object, as the physical description of the article, that is, in October 1970, the Nanjing Municipal Cultural Management Commission excavated the tomb of Wang Xingzu in the southern foot of a small tushan mountain outside the central gate of Nanjing, and the jade belt was excavated inside.
This jade belt is the earliest Ming Dynasty jade belt unearthed so far, there is no customization, the structure is basically consistent with the Tang, Song and Yuan dynasties, and the cloud dragon pattern and ring buckle still exist in the Song and Yuan styles, which is a typical work during the yuan and Ming dynasties.
The multi-layer hollow carving technique has reached a high level, and the white jade is more magnificent against the background of the gold tuo, highlighting the artistic expression of the dragon play beads and the Lingzhi Xiangyun.
The jade belt of the middle and late Ming Dynasty has changed, the hollowing and through carving technique is no longer hierarchical, and the skeleton carving technique of "embossing under the flower" is mostly adopted, and the main pattern and the ground pattern no longer appear superimposed and staggered.
Third, the basic characteristics of jade belt ornamentation in the early Ming Dynasty
Wang Xingzu is a hero who followed Zhu Yuanzhang to conquer the four directions, his tomb should be buried by Hongwu for four years, the tomb unearthed a special jade belt from the early Ming Dynasty, a total of 14 pieces, there are two forms of thallium tail and pound, and the hammer is divided into three kinds: sunflower petal shape, sunflower petal belt ring shape and half moon shape, made of pure color, white as gelatinous Xinjiang Hetian white jade, with typical early Ming Dynasty jade pondering characteristics.
Each jade strip plate is centered and raised, and the edges are framed by graceful zigzag lines.
It is inlaid with a gold tray and wrapped around the front edge of the jade belt plate, forming a narrow thin gold edge, the lines are rounded and smooth, and the width and narrowness are uniform, setting off the exquisite jade belt.
Each piece of jade belt plate forms a complete pattern, or as a dragon play bead, or as a cloud.
The whole jade belt is decorated with the theme of the dragon play bead pattern, and the single auspicious cloud pattern is used as an auxiliary ornament.
Fourth, the appreciation points of jade belt ornaments in the early Ming Dynasty
As the theme of the dragon play bead pattern is divided into three levels, with the five-clawed dragon as the center of the whole pattern, focusing on the dragon head in the center, the dragon body, head, elbow are stacked on top of each other, the surrounding space is embellished with ganoderma lucidum-shaped fluttering cloud pattern as a cushion, the dragon body seems to churn between the stratus clouds, looming, highlighting the artistic theme of the dragon play beads.
And accurately depict the details of the dragon, showing the mighty appearance of the dragon, which is also a typical feature of the jade carved dragon pattern in the early Ming Dynasty.
In terms of ornamentation treatment, the composition is novel and the layout is rigorous.
It pays attention to the overall effect and pays attention to the symmetry of left and right.
The layers are stacked, rich and complex, and the three-dimensional sense is strong.
The production adopts the multi-layer hollow carving technique that leaves the legacy of Song and Yuan jade, and the carving is exquisite and delicate, and the surface is exquisite.
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