Research On Huang Zongxi’s Thought Of Political Ethics

Huang Zongxi, styled Taichong, with the sobriquet Nanlei, called Mr. Lizhou by scholars, from Yuyao, Zhejiang province, born in the38th year of Emperor Shenzong of the Ming Dynasty (i. e.1610) and dying in the34th year of Kangxi, Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, was known by people of later ages as a thinker, a historian, a philosopher, a writer, an educator and a bibliophile as well. His Academic Record of Song and Yuan Dynasties and Academic Record of the Confucianism of the Ming Dynasty are the earliest monographs on academic history, and his Waiting for the Dawn:a Plan for the Emperor and A Book for Reservation and other works show his prominent contribution to politics. Although many studies have been made on Huang Zongxi’s political and ethical thought, there is currently no thematic examination on Huang Zongxi from the perspective of political ethics; and in the view of a comparative study of China and western countries, the revival of western political philosophy indicates how politics finds its way into morality is a topic of great concern in the academia. Therefore, it is still of practical significance for us to conduct a research on Huang Zongxi’s thought on political ethics.This paper falls into five chapters, respectively probing into Huang Zongxi’s thought on political ethics from the subjects of the background to Huang Zongxi’s thought on political ethics, the main idea of Huang Zongxi’s thought on political ethics, the expansion of Huang Zongxi’s thought on political ethics, and the historic position and modern value of Huang Zongxi’s thought on political ethics. The main idea of each chapter is as follows:The first chapter is an introduction. It clarifies the origin of research on Huang Zongxi’s thought on political ethics, discriminates the difference between politics and ethics and analyses their relationship, and examines comprehensively the academic achievements. And based on this, this paper examines the problems with the present research and the conclusion differences of the present research from the four aspects; a comparative study, a study of philosophical category, a study of ethics and a study of politics.The second chapter introduces the background to Huang Zongxi’s thought on political ethics. Firstly, in combination with the historic background and political practice, this paper makes a study of the history in which Huang Zongxi’s thought on political ethics formed and the influence of the historic politics on his thought. Secondly, this paper tries to clarify the theoretical origin of Huang Zongxi’s thought on political ethics. The academy after Wang Yangming had an empty and crude style of study, which caused Huang Zongxi to find positive resources in the theory of disposition and the idealist philosophy, avoid their negative influence and try to develop a new thought on political ethics through a hard reconciliation. And the rise of statecraft thought is an ideological force for Huang Zongxi’s thought on political ethics to be applied to practical politics.The third chapter discusses the main idea of Huang Zongxi’s thought on political ethics. This chapter focuses on Huang Zongxi’s theory of ideal politics that people of the empire are hosts and the emperor is a guest, theory of political system that an empire should be sustained by people, and ethical requirement for political subjects that service should be provided to people of the empire. In terms of Huang Zongxi’s political ideal, his argument about the public affairs and the private affairs and his argument about benevolent government and tyranny form a theoretical basis for Huang Zongxi’s ideal politics, and "serving the people","country belonging to the people" and "both morally sage and benevolent government by an emperor" are characteristic of Huang Zongxi’s political ideal that people of the empire are hosts and the emperor is a guest. In terms of Huang Zongxi’s theory of political system, Huang Zongxi profoundly analyzed the administrative system, the legal system and the system of political participation under the absolute monarchy, creatively proposed, by means of a writing method of changing the system through citing historic stories, a new set of institutional ideas and an institutional system such as the system of "setting the prime minister post""a legal system set up by the people" and the system for "academies to participate in government", and he hoped to realize his political ideal on the basis of it. And in terms of his ethical requirement for political subjects, this paper analyzed Huang Zongxi requirement for an emperor’s morals and for officials’ morals.The fourth chapter centers around the expansion of Huang Zongxi’s thought on political ethics. We believe that a thinker’s political ethics does not expand in isolation, but has much to do with economy, education and military affairs. In terms of the relationship between political ethics and economy, economic activities inherently contains a human being’s acts and his thought and reflects a human being’s value orientation and moral choice, and this paper examines the economic expansion of Huang Zongxi’s thought on political ethics from the angle of the system of arable land and the angle of the financial system. In terms of the relationship between political ethics and education, we hold that the peak political conveyed by Hang Zongxi’s Academic Record of the Confucianism of the Ming Dynasty is "developing the interest of all people" And in order to realize this political ideal, he maintained that the contemporary education system must be reformed, that academies’ function of participating in the government must be encouraged and that education must be expanded in both content and functions, proposed a series of innovative educational ideas and ways of developing education, and analyzed his political ethics contained in "the discussion of the standard of judging right and wrong in academies","the appointment of an official","directing practice with sound knowledge of history". In terms of the relationship between political ethics and military affairs, we believe that Huang Zongxi who advocated the healthy functioning of the political order regarded the interests of the state and the people as the core of the political culture. These ideas are reflected in his military theory and strategy, and the research on them is conducted from the feudal military system and the system of military service.The fifth chapter discusses the historic position and modern value of Huang Zongxi’s thought on political ethics. As for the position of Huang Zongxi’s thought on political ethics, there have always existed different opinions. Huang Zongxi’s thought is an intermediate form between the traditional politics and the modern democratic politics------early enlightenment thought which evolved on the basis of the traditional people-oriented thought. Through the comparison between the traditional people-oriented thought and Huang’s thought as well as the comparison between the modern democratic thought and Huang’s thought, we may position Huang Zongxi’s thought on political ethics to be new people-oriented thought or early enlightenment thought. Huang Zongxi’s thought on political ethics has some positive values today. For example, the restoration of "the system of the prime minister post" has a positive meaning for limiting the absolute monarchy, and is consistent with the idea of "shutting power up in a cage". For another example, Huang Zongxi’s political ideal that a legal system must be set up by all the people of the nation to govern the state exposed that the feudal legal system is in nature a system of only one person, which fundamentally denies the rationality of the legal systems of all dynasties and represents the interests of the public sector and the people in general, and therefore is progressive and revolutionary. Some of these ideas, of course, have some historical limitations. For example, Huang Zongxi’s concept of equality refers only to the equality in moral requirement and social responsibility of both the monarch and the people instead of the equality in individual rights of both the monarch and the people, and this concept of equality is what must be reformed today.