Huang Zongxi

Huang Zongxi

Huang Zongxi ( Chinese  黃宗羲 ; born September 24, 1610 in Yuyao ; died August 12, 1695 , ibid), hao : Lizhou 梨 洲 , was a Chinese philosopher , political analyst and historian. He is counted among the group of Ming loyalists. Huang criticizes the fact that political power was exclusively exercised in a centralist, authoritarian manner by the monarchical court. He demanded that the exercise of power should be oriented towards the benefit for the people and that it should be more widely distributed. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Chinese reformers invoked Huang's teachings as his idea of ​​the Chinese nation.

Huang Zongxi, along with Gu Yanwu and Wang Fuzhi, is seen as one of the most influential scholars of the transition period from the Ming to the Qing dynasty . Some analysts of his work describe him as a pioneer of the Enlightenment .

Life

Huang Zongxi was the son of a court official and scholar who, as a supporter of the Dongling Academy, campaigned for reforms at the court and was therefore sentenced to death in 1626 for high treason at the instigation of the powerful court eunuch Wei Zhongxian . During this time, Huang became a student of the scholar Liu Zongzhou. After the Manchu conquest of Beijing and the proclamation of the Manchurian Qing Dynasty, Huang joined the Chinese resistance to the new dynasty, but withdrew in 1649 and worked as a private scholar until the end of his life.

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In his first major work "Mingyi dai fang lu" from 1662/1663 (German: "Notes in anticipation of an enlightened ruler"), Huang analyzes the political system of the Chinese Empire. He complains that in Chinese history the emperors increasingly pursued selfish interests and ignored the welfare of the people. The emperor's power should be controlled by a prime minister. Huang opposed excessive centralization and called for more local freedoms based on a local hereditary elite that was closer to the people. Huang also proposed reforms in the areas of education, civil service exams, the military, and taxation in his works. Legislation should be based on the overriding needs of justice and not on the despotic will of a ruler. "Mingyi dai fang lu" was created against the background of the failure of the purely Chinese Ming dynasty and the rise of the Qing dynasty, which was of Manchurian origin.

In 1676, Huang's work on the history of philosophy "Ming Ru Xue'an" (German: "Investigation of Ming Confucianism") was published, which is considered to be the first systematization of Chinese philosophy in a period of time. In the work, the individual philosophers are classified according to schools of thought, which are arranged according to their sphere of activity in the individual provinces. They are presented with biographies, their most important lectures and a commentary on their teachings. Huang demanded to study the facts and then to come to your own knowledge as unadulterated as possible through authorities. Therefore, in his history of philosophy, he tried to portray the principles of schools as unadulterated as possible. A systematizing philosophy in the time of the Song and Yuan dynasties , "Song-Yuan Xue'an", remained unfinished.

As a historian, he advocated the study of modern history as well, instead of limiting himself to the study of antiquity. For him, historical analysis should be based on facts and not on personal and moral standards.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Wolfgang Bauer : History of Chinese Philosophy (=  Becksche series ). 2nd Edition. Verlag CH Beck, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-406-59301-7 , p. 286, 296-297 .
2. ↑ Eusterschulte, Anne (ed.): Kindler Compact: Philosophy of the Modern Age . JB Metzler - Springer-Verlag, Stuttgart 2017, ISBN 978-3-476-04346-7 , pp. 179-180 .