Staging Wang Yangming's Sagehood in Ming China

Abstract: This paper investigates two Ming-Dynasty plays about the life and career of Wang Yangming, the prominent Confucian philosopher and military general who captured the imagination of authors. These two plays are Shanyang Daoren's nanxi play The Story of Wang Yangming Quelling the Rebellion and Lü Tiancheng's chuanqi play The Story of the Divine Sword . They are the only two Ming plays about Wang Yangming whose titles survive today. Even though the full text of these two plays is no longer extant, by analyzing excerpts or descriptions of them from other anthological works, I demonstrate how Wang's political life informed the religious and popular imagination of him. While both plays, with their subject matter, draw from the tradition of "current affairs" literature, they both also feature elements that turn the description of Wang's life into a hagiography. I analyze how The Story of Wang Yangming Quelling the Rebellion shows a relationship between Wang and the Daoist immortal Xu Xun, demonstrating Wang's connection to the divine and his Confucian–Daoist linkage. The Story of the Divine Sword recollects Wang's military career, symbolized by a sword given to him in a dream, thus glorifying his motives and accomplishments. The existence of these two plays indicates not only the widespread popularity of Wang Yangming during the Ming but also his broad veneration.