Huang Zongxi’s Power Restriction Thought And Its Contemporary Value

At present, as China is in the key link of political system reform and development, the problems such as concentration of power, power imbalances, and power corruption in political field not only affect the healthy development of China’s political life, but also relate to the development of the whole society in China, and even the vicissitude of China. Therefore, it is necessary and very important to study on power restriction thought. The ancient thoughts shall be systemized, analyzed, and selectively absorbed, while its important role in the political field of China shall be given full play to, holding on well at present and looking forward to the future.Although there are a lot of discusses about power restriction in the political thoughts in ancient China, most of them exist for maintaining the feudal ruling class. Living in the changing period from Ming dynasty to Qing dynasty, Huang Zongxi is very disappointed with the feudal political power due to the tragic death of his father Huang Zunsu and his own political experience. Through in-depth thinking of the political power in the feudal system of Ming dynasty and the pervious dynasties, he wrote his ideal political program Waiting for the Dawn: A Plan for the Prince. From the historical background of Huang Zongxi and his personal experience, the thoughts regarding power restriction from his political theory is excavated, aiming to provide some enlightenments for the power restriction theory construction of China, which is right in the society transition period.By studying on the famous work of Huang Zongxi’s Waiting for the Dawn: A Plan for the Prince, this paper mainly aims to analyze his political thought about power restriction, which is divided into five parts. The first part is introduction, which mainly introduces the research purpose and significance of this paper as well as the related literature review. The second part mainly introduces the historical background and theoretical basis of Huang Zongxi’s power thoughts. The third part summarizes Huang Zongxi’s power restriction thought and its characteristics on the basis of the interpretation of his power restriction thought. The fourth part sums up the problems existing in the process of power restriction in contemporary China through the analysis on the current situation of power restriction in contemporary China. The fifth part explores the reference value of Huang Zongxi’s power restriction thought for the power restriction process of contemporary China, in allusion to the existing problems mentioned in the fourth part, on the basis of the detailed discussions in the former three parts.With various methods such as the interests of the people, deconcentration, party organization, direction of public opinion, legal system and the political participation of the masses, Huang Zongxi’s power restriction thought strengthens the restriction on political power, to realize the diversity of power restriction. Although this theory is made for the construction of new regime after the perish of Ming dynasty, it is still within the scope of the feudal society intrinsically, and there is an unfeasibility of the thought in the society at that time. Nevertheless, it still has reference value for the development and perfection of the power restriction theory of contemporary China.