The 17th Century: the Termination of Prose's Spirit

Prose in late Ming Dynasty is representative literary form in Chinese prose history. WANG Yang\|ming's philosophy of School of Mind, together with literary views of School of Xingling(School of Self\|expression), the mixture of the literati culture, the philistine culture, Laotse and Chuangtse philosophy and Buddhism constitute the literary characters of prose in late Ming Dynasty. This kind of prose which has strong trace of Modern times awareness came to its termination in the middle of the 17th century due to the dynasty change from Ming to Qing Dynasty. Through discussion on the problem, we can figure out the development process of Chinese literature in the 17th century so as to make more accurate description on the literature state of the 17th century.