increasing number of men competed for a more or lessfixed number of
slots, thus lowering everyone’s chances of passing almost to the level of
random chance.
The presence of this educated, elite audience of readers created a
demand for books on every subject and in every genre, fromfiction to
history. Far more books on military affairs, for example, were written
during the Ming Dynasty than in any earlier period. New and sometimes
recycled ideas were introduced, explained, and expanded upon. Some
argued that Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism were three aspects of
the same underlying ideas. Others, like the great Confucian thinker Wang
Yangming ( 1472 – 1529 ), argued for a new direction in Confucianism,
rejecting the orthodox, Ming government–sanctioned Cheng-Zhu Neo-
Confucianism. Wang was also interested in the practice of“quiet sitting
靜坐,”a meditation practice similar to Chan Buddhist practice, as a way to
focus the mind. This was particularly important for Wang, who argued for
the unity of thought and action. Wang himself passed the civil service
exams, held high office, and successfully suppressed rebellions. He was a
man of literary, military, and political accomplishments, demonstrating
the immense range of ideas and practices that a notable man might achieve
during the Ming Dynasty.
Several of our contemporary legends about the martial arts were also
formed in the Ming Dynasty, in part because we have more information on
the Ming than earlier periods as the printing and publication of texts
increased dramatically from the eleventh century onward. Prior to this
period, the few texts that discussed the martial arts were mostly military
texts, and those were usually devoted to very specific questions of training
and practice. In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, however, more authors
began writing about martial arts. This new development coincided with
the publication of two great novels in the sixteenth century,The Romance
of the Three KingdomsandThe Water Margin.
Both of these novels developed out of earlier history and storytelling
traditions, and both, particularlyThe Water Margin, went through a
number of editions and changes starting with Yuan theatrical versions
and continuing, in the case ofThe Water Margin, until the middle of the
seventeenth century. The performative traditions of martial arts and the-
ater had ramified into what might fairly be considered martial arts novels
by the middle of the Ming Dynasty. This shift from performance to text is a
key marker in the development of individual, private literati writing about
martial arts and the interest of the literati in these arts. Whereas theater
could play to the illiterate commoners, a novel written in literary Chinese
The Ming Dynasty 159