The Analysis Of Huang Zunxian's Thoughts Of Human Rights And Constitutional Government

China was in a period of great upheaval in the early 21 century. After the Opium War (1840-1842), China had declined to be a semi-colonial, semi-feudal country from an absolutely independent feudal empire。The lost of the territory and sovereignty day after day awoke a group of men of insight, who came to seek a way out for China earnestly. Among them, was Huang Zunxian. Having experience the great change of the time, invasion of motherland by the western great powers and the uprising of the peasants, he began to suspect and repel feudalism, and came to consider the way of China being prosperous and powerful. He went to Japan, America, Britain and Singapore, during which, with the enthusiasm as a poet, he put down what he had seen and heard, especially the profound consideration about the reform of the political system performed by Japan from which the advanced thoughts about human rights and constitutional government popular in western countries were understood by him. On the basis of it, he wrote Japanese Trivialities Poems and Japanese History to introduce Japan to Chinese people and let them comprehend Meiji Reform (in Japan, 1868-1912). In these two books, he put emphasis on the Japanese experience and lessons on civil rights and constitutional government and spread the former in China. In his opinion, China should learn from Japan to reform the feudal autocratic monarchy and establish the capitalist parliamentary and constitutionalism. Besides, Europe and America should be taken as modes in the abolish of the feudal imperial civil examination system, the establish of modern-style schools, the teaching of the western advanced science and technology, and the reform of Chinese old writing system and type to the replacement of an easy and popular one. In this way, the minds of Chinese people could be broadened and the awareness of them were able to be enhanced to such an extent that they were informed of and would consciously protect their rights. In addition, he put forward the thought of replacing the feudal autocratic monarchy with the capitalist constitutional monarchy. These ideas had generated profound influence to Reform Movement of 1898 mobilized by Kang Youwei and all such. Huang Zunxian also participated positively in the Reform Movement. He joined Qiangxue Associate in Shanghai and set up a publication Current Affairs with Liang Qichao and Wang Kangnian. Besides, he carried out new politics in Hunan Province where his theory of local autonomy was put into practice through the establishment of Security Bureau. After the failure of Reform Movement, he returned to his native town and began to elaborate his thoughts of reformism systematically. He tried all his best to remonstrate the constitutional monarchy, advocated the progressive reform and criticized the feudal bureaucratic system. The way to realize constitutional government, according to Huang, was the principle of forming a group for mutual aid. On the basis of the introduction of the historic facts mentioned above, this article comments on and analyzes Huang's thoughts of human rights and constitutional government -on the one hand, it is positive to criticize feudal thoughts and advocate civil rights and constitutional government, on the other hand, his reform certainly is not complete because of its premise of keeping the feudal rule, which is the negative aspects of it. Generally, Huang had given irreplaceable and immortal influence in the transitional period of modern China.