The Influence of Eunuchs in Kangxi’s Inner Circle

2018 ◽  
pp. 83-107
Author(s):  
Norman A. Kutcher
Keyword(s):  
Ming Dynasty ◽  
Li Yu ◽  
Inner Circle ◽  
The Ming Dynasty

While the Kangxi emperor is traditionally considered to have sternly cracked down on the sprouts of eunuch power in the Qing, his own proximity to the Ming dynasty meant he would draw on Ming models more than he himself realized. Thus it was that he allowed a small number of eunuchs to become among his chief advisors. These included Gu Wenxing, Li Yu, Liang Jiugong, Chen Fu and Wei Zhu. They played key roles in diplomatic exchanges, and even in the process of succession.

Political Drama in the Ming-Qing Transition: A Study of Four Plays

2012 ◽  
Vol 17 (01) ◽  
pp. 1-34
Author(s):  
Alison Hardie
Keyword(s):  
Ming Dynasty ◽  
Li Yu ◽  
Late Ming ◽  
Political Events ◽  
Political Drama ◽  
Late Ming Dynasty ◽  
The Late Ming Dynasty ◽  
The Phoenix ◽  
The Ming Dynasty

In the late Ming dynasty, a new genre of drama arose, which presented on stage recent political events, featuring real historical persons; this genre continued across the Ming-Qing transition. The earliest and one of the best known examples is The Cry of the Phoenix (Ming feng ji), dramatising the conflict between corrupt minister Yan Song (1481-1568) and upright official Yang Jisheng (1516-1555), and probably written by someone in the literary circle of Wang Shizhen (1526-1590). The genre reached its apogee in Kong Shangren’s (1648-1718) The Peach Blossom Fan (Taohua shan). Around the Ming-Qing transition, in the Chongzhen and Shunzhi reigns, a considerable number of plays focused on the conflict during the preceding Tianqi reign between the Eastern Grove (Donglin) faction and the chief eunuch Wei Zhongxian (1568-1627). Eleven plays on this subject are known, of which three survive: Fan Shiyan’s Eunuch Wei Grinds Down the Loyal (Wei jian mo zhong ji), the Clear-Whistling Scholar’s (Qingxiaosheng) A Happy Encounter with Spring (Xi feng chun), and Li Yu’s 李玉 A Roster of the Pure and Loyal (Qing zhong pu). Basing my argument on an examination of these plays and of another play by Li Yu, Reunion across Ten Thousand Miles (Wan li yuan), also based on contemporary events, I suggest that the lively version of events given by these political dramas both reflected and helped to develop and spread the popularly accepted view of late-Ming and Southern Ming factional conflict leading to the fall of the Ming dynasty. According to this view, broadly following the Eastern Grove and Revival Society (Fushe) narrative, the decline and fall of the Ming dynasty was the fault of corrupt officials and evil palace eunuchs who misled the Emperor and were bravely resisted by righteous and incorruptible officials who fell as martyrs to their unprincipled opponents. This simplistic view, endorsed to a great extent in the official Ming History (Ming shi), which was mostly written by former Eastern Grove and Revival Society adherents, has persisted in the popular mind to the present day. I also argue that, after the establishment of the Qing, political drama could serve as a vehicle for the covert expression of Ming loyalism.

scholarly journals Distribution and Integration of Military Settlements’ Cultural Heritage in the Large Pass City of the Great Wall in the Ming Dynasty: A Case Study of Juyong Pass Defense Area

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 7166
Author(s):  
Yukun Zhang ◽  
Songyang Li ◽  
Lifeng Tan ◽  
Jiayin Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Ming Dynasty ◽  
Conservation Strategy ◽  
Defense System ◽  
Current Conservation ◽  
North West ◽  
Cultural Routes ◽  
Great Wall ◽  
The Ming Dynasty

The Great Wall of China is more than a wall: it is an extensive cultural route. Pass cities, which are usually large defensive fortresses overseeing an entire fortified area, are an essential part of this heritage and are at the core of the Great Wall’s defense system. Juyong Pass was the closest Pass city to Beijing during the Ming Dynasty when the Great Wall reached its peak. It consisted of five regions—south, east, north, west, and central—that form three fortification levels: core castle, Bao city, and End facility. Based on the Juyong defense area military settlements database, this paper applied spatial analysis methods and found that more than half of the military’s resources for the whole defense area were focused on the western part of the wall, which formed another military core alongside Juyong Pass city. However, the current conservation strategy only focuses on Juyong Pass itself, neglecting the settlements in the western part, thereby destroying the integrity of the Great Wall’s heritage. By clarifying the distribution of cultural heritage in this area, we hope to encourage the preservation of many fortifications according to their authentic historical sphere of control and provide a reference for the sustainable integration of resources along the significant cultural routes of the Great Wall.

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