The Cultural Context Of Huang Zongxi's Thoughts On "Emperor And Scholar-bureaucrat Relation"

Expressed in Ming-I Tai-Fang Lu, Huang Zongxi's thoughts on the relationship between Emperor and common people, Emperor and Scholar-bureaucrat, and the distribution of political power catches many scholars'attention. In the study of Huang Zongxi's political thoughts, the interpretation of his political perspective is based on the interpretation of Ming-I Tai-Fang Lu, which might add some subjective connotation in it while break away from the context of his own academic thoughts. That is, when studying Huang Zongxi's political thoughts, scholars may consider it from the perspective of modern times. With Huang Zongxi's thoughts on Emperor and Scholar-bureaucrat relation, which is the most expressive and distinctive in his political perspective, as the key clue, this article puts his thoughts on Emperor and Scholar-bureaucrat relation into the context of his times and culture which have a great influence on his ideology.Huang Zongxi puts forward a systematic and theoretic mechanism of decentralization of authority, which is different no only from the simple statement of limiting Emperor's power in Ming's political culture, but also from the opinion of opposing Emperor's power. Starting from this representative viewpoint on Emperor and Scholar-bureaucrat relation, the article discusses the context of times and culture that influences Huang Zongxi's thoughts on Emperor and Scholar-bureaucrat relation from three aspects, which include the political cultural context of Ming dynasty, the origin of Huang Zongxi's thoughts and his political introspection inspired by his experience. Firstly, since the beginning of Ming dynasty, the fundamental key for the strict relation between Emperor and Scholar-bureaucrat was set up by Emperor Hongwu, which gives scholar-bureaucrats the chance to pursuit the administration model of"Sage Emperor and Wise Prime Minister". From the early and middle Ming dynasty, the model of"Decentralization of Authority"had been advocated by Qiu Jun and others. Also, Li Chih and Tung-lin clique in middle Ming provide sources for Zongxi's Emperor and Scholar-bureaucrat relation directly. Besides, Huang Huang Zongxi was able to understand scholar-bureaucrats'pursuit of decentralization of authority from Wang Yangming, Liu Zongzhou and others. Finally, Huang Zongxi is familiar with the traditional Confucian perception on the relationship between Emperor and scholar-bureaucrats and scholar-bureaucrats'spirit of being responsible for all people. He takes this idea as a reference to his failure in political activities in Ming and Qing dynasties and finishes Ming-I Tai-Fang Lu. The pursuit of this systematic and all-round idea of"Emperor and Scholar-bureaucrat"formed by Huang Zongxi is a product which according to the inherent logic of China history and political culture.