An Inquiry On Huang Zongxi’s Thought About Law Of God

Huang Zongxi was one of a great initiative thinker between the end of the Ming and the beginning of the Qing dynasty. He personally experienced the demise of the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, he concluded dynasties rise and fall among the historical experienced. After that, he began to reflect China’s thousands of years of feudal autocratic monarchy and its legal system, and considered that the root causes of the sufferings of Chinese common people was the decadent feudal autocratic monarchy. He severely criticized the feudal autocratic monarchy and extremely promoted the development of people-oriented thoughts. And then, Huang Zongxi explained his view about the relations between the ruler and subjects, and the relations between the ruler and the common people, and declared that the common people was the root of the nation, and the ruler was the servant. This is a great overturn of the traditional view of the absolute obedience of the subject to the ruler. Huang Zongxi pointed out what the function of the law of world should be served all of people, and the people who had both ability and political integrity that appeared after the effective and excellent code. But Huang Zongxi did not just remain in the theoretical level, he conceived the effective and excellent code which could limit monarchial power and ensure the benefit for the common people. Huang Zongxi’s thoughts of politics and laws had a high status in China’s history, which was not only the ideological weapon of the reformists of the late Qing dynasty but also the propaganda tools of the revolutionaries of the Revolution of1911. Today, in building a modern nation, Huang Zongxi’s thoughts is reference significance for China’s reform and opening up, the construction of democracy, the rule of law construction.This article is composed of five parts. The first part will analyze political, economic and cultural aspects in Huang Zongxi’s social background. The second part will analyze the origin of Huang Zongxi’s thought about law of God, it contains Confucian people-oriented thoughts, the critical spirit of Donglin Party and his thinking of Human nature. The third part will discuss the theoretical basis of Huang Zongxi’s thought about law of God, what contains Huang Zongxi’s theory of ideal laws that people of the empire are hosts and the emperor is a guest, the disadvantages of the absolute and exclusive law, the description of the law which should be set out from the common people’s actual benefits. The fourth part will make a concrete analysis to Huang Zongxi’s thought about law of God, what contains the restoration of the system of prime minister in administration, schools at various levels discussing affairs of government formation mechanism, resuming Fangzhen system at the border, the legal system reforming about land, taxation and currency. The fifth part will illustrate the influence of Huang Zongxi’s thought about law of God which reflected the democracy of ancient Chinese legal thoughts, and it provide the theoretical weapon for the subsequent bourgeois revolution. At last, the essay will evaluate Huang Zongxi’s thought about law of God.