An Analysis of the Phenomenon of Returning to the Ancient Literary Style in the Early Ming Dynasty

The phenomenon of returning to the ancient literary style in the early Ming Dynastyoriginated from the acceptance of the prosperous new dynasty and expectation from the scholars and was an outcome of the development of the traditional literature itself.Because the literature in the early Ming Dynasty retained the regional traits of the late Yuan Dynasty,the relevant theories of different schools were relatively different but had mutual influence with a tendency of convergence.They advocated different focuses such as emotion,tradition,moral teaching,inheritance of the spirit,image,etc.The theories,practice,controversies and defects of the literary trend of returning to the ancient literary style in the early Ming Dynasty had some obvious influence on the up-coming movement of returning to the ancient literary style in the middle and late Ming Dynasty.