CHAPTER FIFTEEN

LITERATURE OF THE YUAN DYNASTY

The Yuan dynasty was the first unified regime established by an ethnic minority in Chinese history. The more than a hundred years of the Yuan period was one with booming economy and culture. The Mongolian ruling class of the Yuan dynasty always valued actual profit and encouraged commerce. Fang Xiaoru of the Ming dynasty has observed: “The Yuan regime lured the world with material gain . . . and the old customs of the Song dynasty died out.” (“A Valediction to Lu Xindao”) The development of industry and commerce accounted for the unprecedented prosperity of important cities, both the old ones and the newly rising ones, which was revealed in the description, full of admiration, of cities like Dadu, the capital of the Yuan, etc., in the Travels of Marco Polo. At the same time, the Yuan regime also adopted an active foreign policy. It continued the institution of the Maritime Trade Agency of the Song regime. In addition, during the Zhiyuan reign, Kublai, Emperor Shizu of the Yuan, even gave instructions to make up the “Rules of Maritime Trade” which regulated overseas commerce and protected nongovernmental boat business. Precisely because of the support of the government, China’s foreign trade was roaring during the Yuan period and surpassed previous ages. The Yuan dynasty was an expansionist empire, and also one with a great spirit for commerce and adventure. Certainly, as soon as the Mongol rulers entered the Central Plains, they gradually accepted more and more of the traditional culture of the Han nationality. After Kublai assumed the throne, he changed the name of the nation to “Yuan,” taking the meaning of the word from the line in The Book of Changes, “Great is the Qian Yuan (divinatory symbol for Heaven).” Just as Xu Heng suggested to Kublai, “You have to practice the ways of the Han, then you could last long.” (See his biography in History of the Yuan) It was necessitated by the imple- mentation of governing. On the other hand, the penetration of “alien elements” in the culture of the Yuan dynasty was nevertheless most conspicuous among the various unified imperial regimes in Chinese history. During the Yuan dynasty, the government also tried to make 574 chapter fifteen use of Confucianism, but the bold, straightforward, unconstrained and rough character of the Mongolians and their customs that valued mate- rial gain were always estranged from the ideas and theory, of an inhibi- tory nature, of Confucianism. Accordingly, in reality, Confucianism was quite weak as a force of ideological rule during the Yuan dynasty. The saying in the society, “Confucian scholars rank ninth and beggars tenth” (see Xie Fangde’s “A Valediction to Fang Bozai Who Returns to the Three Mountains”), bespoke the dilemma of the Confucian scholars. At the same time, the system of the civil service examinations, which had reached full maturity in the Song dynasty, was also severely dam- aged in the Yuan dynasty. At the beginning of the Yuan dynasty, not only were the civil service examinations abolished for several decades, but even when they were restored, they were far less important than in the Song dynasty because the appointment of government officials had many different venues. To the educated of the Han nationality, even if they disregarded the abominable discriminatory policies of the Yuan rulers towards the Han people, such as the so-called “institution of the four classes of people,” there was much that was disappointing in their governing. On the other hand, at the same time, the specific social condition of the Yuan dynasty also led to a series of consequences of a positive nature, even though these were not necessarily from the original intention of the rulers. First of all, the ruler’s neglect of ideological control led to a relatively free and liberal situation for men of letters, and even some heresies were tolerated. Secondly, when a large number of educated people gave up the hope for an official career, they also freed themselves from their dependence on the state; as the urban economy generated the demands for cultural consumption, they were able to earn a living by selling their intelligence and knowledge to the society. As a result of that they not only strengthened their sense of individualism but also obtained an intimate understanding of life in reality. In this way, the society of the Yuan dynasty produced a group of outstanding men of letters who were not of the traditional type, and they began to have some of the characteristics of self-employers. Precisely due to such circumstances, the literature of the Yuan dynasty showed extraordinary vitality. Forms of marketplace literature and arts like the variety play, storytelling, and the chantefable, which were of a popularized nature, had already been widespread among the commoners for a long time. They contained some vitality within, but before the participation in their composition from outstanding men of