On the eve of the seventeenth century, Beijing was choking on its own ambition. The capital of the Ming dynasty was swollen with booming trade and crushing imperial bureaucracy, while the hopes of many scholar-officials were dashed by Confucianism. Among the bureaucrats was Yuan Hongdao, a firebrand who longed for the cultural circles and misty landscapes of distant…
Jason Wang
Jason Wang is an executive member at Toronto Metropolitan University’s Modern Literature and Culture Research Centre.