On Gu Yanwu's Poltical Philosophy

Gu Yanwu,a famous thinker and patriotic scholar in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.Based on the investigation and analysis of the political system from ancient times to the present,he exposed and criticized the disadvantages of the absolute monarchy,which based on the system of prefectures and counties.He rethought and summarized historical lessons of the Ming Dynasty's doom.And put specific improvement program from the two aspects of the system and the idea.The Ming and Qing Dynasties is a special period in the history of our country.On the one hand,the commodity economy was booming?the sprout of capitalism was emerging and the new citizen class was developing in Jiangnan Region.Ancient China happened to change from traditional agricultural society to modern industrial and commercial society in this period.On the other hand,dynastic changed and feudal monarchy began to decline.Under such a historical background,Gu Yanwu revealed the defects of the system of prefectures and counties,analyzed the harm of excessive autocratic monarchy,put forward a systematic political thought.Gu Yanwu held the opinion that the system of prefectures and counties had both advantages and disadvantages,as well as the feudal system.In his time,the main problem was that power was highly centralized in the central and the monarch grabbed all the power.So firstly,Gu Yanwu proposaled to adjust absolute monarchy.Secondly,he inherited the tradition of Confucian rule of virtue,attached importance to ideological education.Gu Yanwu's political thought had a great influence on the time and later generations.But as an intellectual of feudal landlord class accepting the orthodox Confucian thought,the theory was still to maintain the feudal autocracy.We should take a critical study from Marx's standpoint.To draw beneficial enlightenment to serve the socialist modernization construction.