Prison invariably is a place for punishment and incarceration of people who violate the social order and national laws. Under an overwhelming imperial power, scholar-officials and intellectuals in the Ming Dynasty sometimes would become prisoners if implicated in political resistance against imperial authority or involvement in factional conflict in the bureaucratic system. Encountering long-term imprisonment and under the shadow of death these political dissenters might ponder seriously their low ebbs in life and dark future. As a result, their experiences and thoughts in prison easily became the subjects of various types of poetry or unique narratives with diverse themes, ranging from self-encouragement and mutual encouragement to letters of comfort for their families. This research deals with this imprisonment-related literature, which collectively reflects a special social phenomenon. It investigates how Ming Dynasty intellectuals, tormented by poor conditions behind bars , transformed their lonely and disgruntled thoughts into a host of narrative or metaphorical creations, as well as how they utilized these narrations to build a social network of intellectuals by exchanging and reading poetry.