The ''Dijing Jingwulue'' () is a 17th-century Chinese prose classic written by

Liu Tong Liu Tong (, c. 1593–1637) was a Chinese politician and writer from Macheng in Huanggang. He was a figure in the Ming Dynasty's Jingling school () of Chinese prose literature in contrast to the Gongan school () and the well known Yuan Hongdao ...

, an official with a

Jinshi ''Jinshi'' () was the highest and final degree in the imperial examination in Imperial China. The examination was usually taken in the imperial capital in the palace, and was also called the Metropolitan Exam. Recipients are sometimes refer ...

degree and member of the Jingling school of Chinese prose literature. Yu Yizheng () and Zhou Sun (), two scholars outside of official circles were Liu's assistants who helped in compiling the book. The preface reveals Liu as the actual author, while Yu was a compiler with Zhou acting as something of an assistant to the other two. However, Yu was a native of

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...

, capital of

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...

China, and a scholar of local traditions. Liu may have just polished the prose, but gained most of the prestige. Liu dates the preface as 1635, the same year Yu died in

Nanjing Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), Postal Map Romanization, alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu Provinces of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and t ...

, three years before troops of the new dynasty attacked Beijing. A celebration of a city's ambiance that would disappear behind the secluded walls of a conquered city, the work features descriptions of multiple gardens and estates that would soon vanish forever. Ming dynasty Beijing, in contrast with the later conservative

Manchu The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized ethnic minority in China and the people from whom Manchuria derives its name. The Later Jin (1616–1636) an ...

Qing The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

capital, was a city of gaiety and markets and fairs. Descriptions are given of Ming period fairs with literary men in pursuit of books, art objects and antiquities. Poetry is an integral part of the book and the authors portray a scholar in verse as finding nothing in his purse, but only able to twitch his own whiskers with his hopeful hand. Along with Ming period art that was treasured in its own day, there are descriptions of western paintings of Christ for sale. The Catholic cathedral is described and a judicious space is devoted to the Jesuit missionary

Matteo Ricci Matteo Ricci, SJ (; la, Mattheus Riccius; 6 October 1552 – 11 May 1610), was an Italian Jesuit priest and one of the founding figures of the Jesuit China missions. He created the , a 1602 map of the world written in Chinese characters. ...

. All of this was part of the diverse glory of the age. Seeming small and minor subjects loom large in the authors’ eyes such as the raising of crickets for the ubiquitous

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

fights of the era. Autumn mornings would find a horde of enthusiasts armed with bamboo tubes, cages and pots for the prey heading for abandoned temples with piles of old tiles and stones. At the heart of the classic was the realization of the flux of all things and the ultimate evanescence of human works and monuments in this world. The ''Dijing Jingwulue'' is also notable for being the first text to mention that Jingwan, the founder of the

Yunju Temple Yunju Temple () is a Buddhist temple located in Fangshan District, southwest of Beijing and contains the world's largest collection of stone Buddhist sutra steles in the world. Yunju Temple also contains one of only two extant woodblocks for t ...

Stone Sutra project, was the student of

Huisi Nanyue Huisi (, 515-577), was an eminent Chinese Buddhist monk, traditionally regarded as the third patriarch of the Tiantai school. According to Sasaki, Huisi "was the leading authority on the ''Lotus Sutra'' of his time." Biography The earli ...

, a patriarch of Tiantai Buddhism, though this almost a millennium after the events.Ledderose 2004: 393

References

*Carpenter, Bruce E., "Survey of Scenery and Monuments in the Imperial Capital, A Seventeenth Century Chinese Classic", ''Tezukayama University Review'' (Tezukayama daigaku ronshū),

Nara The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an " independent federal agency of the United States government within the executive branch", charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

, no. 61, 1988, pp. 62–71. ISSN 0385-7743 * Ledderose, Lothar (2004). 'Changing the Audience' in ''Religion and Chinese Society (Vol. 1). A Centennial Conference of the École franşaise d'Extrême-Orient.'' John Lagerwey Ed., p385-409

Notes

{{reflist Ming dynasty literature Chinese prose texts 1635 books