Huang Zongxi

Huang Zongxi was a Chinese Confucian philosopher, historian and political theorist who lived through the fall of the Ming dynasty and refused to serve the conquering Qing. His Waiting for the Dawn (Mingyi daifang lu, 1663) is a sharp critique of imperial autocracy. It argues that rulers exist for the people, that law should serve the whole realm rather than the dynasty, and that schools should be places where scholars openly debate public affairs. His Records of Ming Scholars is often called the first great history of Chinese philosophy.

Key ideas

• In antiquity the people were the hosts and the ruler the guest; later rulers reversed this and treated the realm as private property.
• Ministers serve the realm and the people, not the ruler personally, and should be free to criticise him.
• Good laws protect the whole realm; laws made to secure one family's power are 'unlawful laws'.
• Schools should act as forums of public opinion where officials, and even the ruler, are held to account.

Major works

• Waiting for the Dawn (Mingyi daifang lu) (1663)
• Records of Ming Scholars (Mingru xue'an) (1676)

In the Book corner

• Waiting for the Dawn (Mingyi daifang lu) 1662–1663 · Intermediate
  A short political treatise written by Huang Zongxi in the early 1660s, after the Ming dynasty had fallen to the Manchu Qing.…

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