Stem Education

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 Jiangnan. Confined to a cramped government residence, Yuan staged a rebellion against stifling conformity — with a spray of colour neatly arranged in a celadon vase. In ten inches of porcelain, he found liberation, and this quiet act gave birth to an unlikely manifesto.

Published in 1599, Ping Shi, which roughly translates to “on flower vases,” is less a horticultural manual than a koan. A Pure Land Buddhist who sought transcendent rebirth, Yuan co‑led the Gong’an literary school, which championed xingling — or raw feeling and expression — against state-sanctioned formalism. Achieving...