Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period/Huang Tsung-hsi
HUANG Tsung-hsi 黃宗羲 (T. 太冲, H. 南雷 and 棃洲先生), Sept. 24, 1610–1695, Aug. 12, one of the foremost scholars of the early Ch'ing period, was a native of Yü-yao, Chekiang. His father, Huang Tsun-su 黃尊素 (T. 眞長, H. 白安, 1584–1626), a chin-shih of 1616 and a loyal member of the Tung-lin faction, suffered death because of his opposition to the powerful eunuch, Wei Chung-hsien [q. v.], and was canonized in 1644 as Chung-tuan 忠端. Huang Tsung-hsi became a licentiate in 1623, and in the autumn of the same year (age fourteen sui) accompanied his father to Peking where the latter held a post as a censor. At this time the struggle between the Tung-lin party and the eunuch faction was nearing a climax, and many nights during the year 1624 such prominent members of the Tung-lin group as Yang Lien [q. v.] and Tso Kuang-tou (see under Yang Lien) held secret conferences in Huang Tsun-su's residence. Hence at an early age the son was initiated into the intricacies of contemporary politics. The father was dismissed from office in 1625 for denouncing Wei Chung-hsien and his allies within the palace, and both father and son returned home.
Soon thereafter Huang Tsung-hsi was married to Yeh Pao-lin 葉寶林 (1609–1676), a daughter of Yeh Hsien-tsu 葉憲祖 (T. 美度, 相攸, H. 六桐 and 檞園居士, d. 1641 age 76 sui, chin-shih of 1619), a man of letters and a noted dramatist. When Huang Tsun-su was travelling in custody to Peking in 1626 he introduced his son to Liu Tsung-chou [q. v.], the prominent philosopher of the Wang Yang-ming school. Huang Tsung-hsi became Liu's most devoted disciple and one of the exponents of the Wang Yang-ming philosophy (see under Chang Li-hsiang). Huang Tsun-su was put to death in prison in the summer of that year (1626). Two years later, when the new emperor, Ssŭ-tsung (i.e. Chu Yu-chien), ascended the throne Huang Tsung-hsi set out for the capital with a long awl in his sleeve and a memorial in his hand to take vengeance on certain officials and to protest against the injustice that had been done to his father. But before he arrived at his destination Wei Chung-hsien died, members of the eunuch clique were punished, and posthumous honors were bestowed on those who had been unjustly put to death. In Peking, however, Huang Tsung-hsi engaged in daring acts of vengeance, and his sense of filial piety aroused the admiration and sympathy of many. During a stay in Nanking in 1630 he became a member of the politico-literary group known as the Fu-shê (see under Chang P'u).
In deference to a last wish of his father, Huang Tsung-hsi began in 1631 a detailed study of Chinese history, employing the method of punctuating one volume each day. Thus in two years he finished the official chronicles, or "Veritable Records" (實錄), of the first thirteen reigns of the Ming dynasty, as well as the Twenty-one Dynastic Histories. In view of the return to power of the eunuch faction the Fu-shê group issued an anti-corruption circular known as the Manifesto of Nanking (留都防亂揭) of which Huang Tsung-hsi was one of the leading signers. This list of names served later as the basis of Juan Ta-ch'êng's [q. v.] list, Huang nan-lu (see under Chang P'u), of proscribed members of the Tung-lin and Fu-shê parties. During his visits to Nanking in the years 1630-41 Huang Tsung-hsi frequently stayed in the home of Huang Chü-chung (see under Huang Yü-chi) in whose library, Ch'ien-ch'ing t'ang, he had the privilege of studying. When the news of the fall of Peking reached him in 1644 he and his teacher, Liu Tsung-chou, went to Hangchow to join Hsiung Ju-lin 熊汝霖 (T. 雨殷, chin-shih of 1631, d. 1648) in raising volunteer troops for the Ming cause.
Meanwhile the Prince of Fu (see under Chu Yu-sung) ascended the throne at Nanking and Huang Tsung-hsi was summoned to the new capital. Soon, however, Juan Ta-ch'êng came to power and ordered the arrest of 140 members (or descendants of former members) of the Tunglin and Fu-shê societies, including Huang Tsung-hsi who, according to Liang Ch'i-ch'ao (see under T'an Ssŭ-t'ung), took refuge in Japan at this time. But as the evidence for such a journey is based wholly on a poem, entitled 避地賦 Pi-ti fu, "On Taking Refuge", in which Huang merely alludes to certain places in Japan, the proof is hardly conclusive. When Nanking fell to the Manchus in 1645, the forces of Hsiung Ju-lin and Sun Chia-chi 孫嘉積 (T. 碩膚, 1604–1646) on the Ch'ien-t'ang river still held out against the invaders, and Huang Tsung-hsi with his two younger brothers and a volunteer force of several hundred men assisted them. Huang met the Prince of Lu (see under Chu I-hai) near Shaohsing and stationed his troops on the river in a camp known as Shih-chung ying 世忠營. He constructed a calendar for this regime, which was promulgated in the region of Chekiang in that year and was called 監國魯元年大統曆 Chien-kuo Lu yüan-nien ta-t'ung li. In 1646 he was made a censor and concurrently a secretary in the Board of War. In the same year the Ming forces were dispersed, the Prince of Lu proceed by sea to Fukien, and Huang Tsung-hsi with five hundred men constructed barricades in the Ssŭ-ming mountains, about a hundred li south of his home. These defenses were later burned and destroyed by the local inhabitants who feared Manchu retaliation. In 1649 the Prince of Lu returned and established his headquarters on the Chusan Islands off the coast of Chekiang where he was joined by Huang Tsung-hsi who was made a vice-president of the Censorate. But as the real authority was in the hands of Chang Ming-Ch'ên [q. v.] there was very little that Huang could do to relieve the situation. Moreover, as the Manchu authorities had proclaimed the arrest of all members of families of active Ming loyalists, and as the life of his mother was jeopardized, he decided to abandon political activities and retire to his home. In the epitaph of Huang, composed by Ch'üan Tsu-wang [q. v.], it is stated that in this year he accompanied Fêng Ching-ti 馮京第 (T. 躋仲, d. 1650, chin-shih of 1640) to Japan to request military aid; but his connection, if any, with that mission is not clear.
After his retirement in 1649 Huang Tsung-hsi devoted himself wholly to the advancement of learning. For a few months in 1650 he visited Ch'ien Ch'ien-i [q. v.] at Soochow, and thereafter for some thirty years he lived in or near his native place, except for a trip to Kiangsu in 1660 and again in 1664 when he once more saw Ch'ien Ch'ien-i shortly before the latter died. In 1667 he revived in Shaohsing the Academy known as Chêng-jên Shu-yüan 證人書院 which had been founded by his teacher, Liu Tsung-chou, but which had suspended activities for twenty years. In 1673 he visited the famous Fan family library, T'ien-i ko, at Ningpo (see under Fan Mou-chu), made a list of its rare books, and later wrote an essay on it entitled 天一閣藏書記 T'ien-i ko ts'ang-shu chi. In this year also the northern philosopher, Sun Ch'i-fêng [q. v.], presented to Huang a copy of his biographical work, Li-hsüeh tsung-chuan. Three years later, Ku Yen-wu [q. v.], another great scholar of the time, sent to him for criticism his well-known work, Jih-chih lu. When the special examination known as po-hsüeh hung-tz'ŭ (see under P'êng Sun-yü) was initiated in 1678, Yeh Fang-ai [q. v.] was about to recommend Huang Tsung-hsi as one of the select competitors, but with the help of a pupil Huang managed successfully to have his name excluded. When the Historiographical Board for the writing of the Ming History (Ming-shih) was finally set up, in the following year, all of Huang Tsung-hsi's writings on the history of the defunct dynasty were ordered to be copied and placed at the disposal of the compilers. His pupils, Wan Ssŭ-t'ung and Wan Yen [qq. v.], and his youngest son, Huang Po-chia 黃百家 (original name 百學 T. 主一 H. 不失, b. 1643), were summoned to the capital to assist in the task. In 1683 Huang visited the home of Hsü Ch'ien-hsüeh [q. v.] in K'un-shan, Kiangsu, and acquainted himself with the latter's library, Ch'uan-shih lou of which he wrote an account, entitled Ch'uan-shih lou ts'ang-shu chi (藏書記). Huang Tsung-hsi died at the age of eighty-six (sui) and was unofficially canonized as Wên-hsiao 文孝. His name was entered in the Temple of Confucius in 1909.
In his studies Huang Tsung-hsi showed an unusually wide range of interests including classics, history, philosophy, mathematics and literature. The Ssŭ-k'u Catalogue (see under Chi Yün) lists fifteen of his works of which six were copied into the Imperial Manuscript Library. About one hundred titles attributed to him are either extant or listed in various catalogues. Among several works on the classics may be mentioned the 易學象數論 I-hsüeh hsiang-shu lun, 6 chüan, written about the year 1661, chiefly to examine the genuineness of the elaborate diagrams which the Sung philosophers had traced back to the Classic of Changes (see under Hu Wei and Huang Tsung-yen). A work on Mencius, entitled 孟子師說 Mêng-tzŭ shih shuo, 7 chüan, was written to supplement notes which his teacher, Liu Tsung-chou, had previously published on the Classics.
In the historical field Huang Tsung-hsi is generally regarded as the founder of the so-called Eastern Chekiang School 浙東學派 which attempted to set more objective standards both in history and philosophy. His 行朝錄 Hsing-ch'ao lu is a collection of brief historical accounts of the southern Ming regimes of which the individual titles and the number of chüan vary with the different editions, and some of the essays are believed by later scholars not to be his. The Hsing-ch'ao lu was listed among the banned works of the eighteenth century. For the use of the compilers of the Ming History he wrote biographical sketches of several important southern Ming figures such as Liu Tsung-chou, Ch'ien Su-yüeh 錢肅樂 (T. 希聲, H. 虞孫, 1607–1648), and Hsiung Ju-lin. It is reported that he himself wrote a draft History of the Ming Dynasty in 244 chüan under the title 明史案 Ming-shih an. One of his best-known works is the 明儒學案 Ming-ju hsüeh-an, in 62 chüan, compiled in 1676. It is a systematic historical survey of all the important schools of thought that arose during the Ming period, showing their interconnection, their geographical distribution, with critical evaluations of the life and teachings of each man mentioned. Huang Tsung-hsi believed that only by a sound historical approach could the prevailing philosophies of Chu Hsi and Wang Yang-ming be properly evaluated. The Ming-ju hsüeh-an is usually regarded as the first great history of Chinese philosophy. Previous efforts of the same kind, such as the 聖學宗傳 Shêng-hsüeh tsung-chuan by Chou Ju-têng 周汝登 (T. 繼元, H. 海門, d. 1629 age 84 sui) and the above-mentioned Li-hsüeh tsung-chuan by Sun Ch'i-fêng, printed in 1666, were discursive and lacking in objectivity.
In a still more ambitious work known as the 宋元學案 Sung Yüan hsüeh-an, which Huang Tsung-hsi began in his old age but left unfinished at his death, he attempted to do the same for the thought of the Sung and Yüan periods. His son, Huang Po-chia, carried on the task for a time, and Ch'üan Tsu-wang worked on it during the years 1746–54, but after the latter's death in 1755 the manuscript reverted to the Huang family. The extant edition of the Sung Yüan hsüeh-an, in 100 chüan, was supplemented and edited by Fêng Yün-hao 馮雲濠 (T. 雘軒) and Wang Tzŭ-ts'ai 王梓材 (T. 四橋) and finally printed in 1846 by (T. Ho Shao-chi). The Chekiang Provincial Library possesses a further supplement, Sung Yüan hsüeh-an pu-i (補遺), an unprinted manuscript in 42 chüan which was completed by Wang Tzŭ-ts'ai in 1838, but is said to have been expanded to 100 chüan by 1842.
Huang Tsung-hsi's political philosophy is revealed in a short treatise, 明夷待訪錄 Ming-i tai fang lu, written in 1662, which was highly praised by such contemporaries as Ku Yen-wu. Because of its liberal ideas on kingship, the obligations of rulers, and the rights of the people, it was popularized by Liang Ch'i-ch'ao and his followers at the close of the Manchu dynasty as revolutionary literature. Only a few of Huang Tsung-hsi's mathematical works were published—ten are said to be extant in draft form in the home of a descendant. A copy of the aforementioned Calendar for the first year of the regency of the Prince of Lu is said to be in the possession of Lo Chên-yü (see under Chao Chih-ch'ien); another for the fifth year of the regency is owned by the historian, Ch'ên Yüan (see under Sunu). In the literary field Huang Tsung-hsi left a collection of verse, 南雷詩曆 Nan-lei shih-li in 4 chüan, and three collections of prose: Nan-lei wên-an (文案), Nan-lei wên-ting (定), and Nan-lei wên-yüeh (約). Nan-lei was the name of a peak in the Ssŭ-ming mountains where he had built a studio. Two collections of his works 黃棃洲遺書 Huang Li-chou i-shu (1905) and 棃洲遺箸彙刊 Li-chou i-chu hui-k'an (1910) are far from complete. He compiled several anthologies among which may be mentioned the 姚江逸詩 Yao-chiang i-shih, 15 chüan, arranged in 1672, an anthology of verse written by authors of his native place. During the years 1668–75 he produced a massive anthology of prose writings by authors of the Ming period, entitled 明文案 Ming-wên an, in 217 chüan. By 1693 this work was expanded to 482 chüan and the title was changed to Ming-wên hai (海) or "Ocean of Ming Literature". He extracted from this collection what he regarded as the most valuable parts and brought them together in 62 chüan under the title Ming-wên shou-tu (授讀) for his son—the above-mentioned Huang Po-chia—to study.
Huang Tsung-hsi had three sons: Huang Po-yao 黃百藥 (T. 棄疾, 1629–1694), Huang Chêng-i 黃正誼 (T. 直方, 1640–1693), and the aforementioned Huang Po-chia. All three became scholars, the youngest being the most accomplished. A son-in-law, Liu Mao-lin 劉茂林 (T. 子本, b. 1633), was a grandson of Liu Tsung chou. Wan Ch'êng-hsün (see under Wan Yen) was his grandson-in-law. In the year 1722 Chêng Hsing (see under Wan Yen) built in memory of Huang Tsung-hsi and his own grandfather, Chêng Chên 鄭溱 (T. 平子, H. 秦川, d. 1697 age 86 sui), a hall known as Êr-lao Ko (二老閣) which he used as a library to store the books of his family and some 30,000 chüan of Huang Tsung-hsi's collection, or that portion of it which had been preserved up to that time.
[1/486/4a; 3/404/14a; 4/131/1a; 20/1/00; M.1/245/12a; 21/1/15b; Yü-yao hsien-chih (1899) 23/1a; Nien-p'u by a 7th generation descendant, Huang Ping-hou 黃炳垕; Hsieh Kuo-chên 謝國楨, 黃棃洲學譜 Huang Li-chou hsüeh-p'u; W.M.S.C.K.; Liang Ch'i-ch'ao 梁啟超, 黃棃洲朱舜水乞師日本辨 in 飲氷室文集 Yin-ping-shih wên-chi (1925) 67/23b; Ma T'ai-Hsüan 馬太玄, 黃宗羲之生平及其箸述 Sun Yatsen University Bulletin of Institute of History and Language v. 2, no. 15, p. 66; Ch'ên Têng-yüan 陳登原, 書明夷待訪錄後, Nanking Journal v. 4, No. 2, p. 277; Hu Shih 胡適, 宋元學案補遺四十二卷本跋, Library Science Quarterly vol. 1, no. 3, p. 473; Notice on 宋元學案 in Chekiang Library Bi-monthly vol. 2, no. 3, p. 74; Report of the Librarian of Congress (1930) pp. 351–353; for partial translation of Ming-i tai fang lu see T'ang Leang Li, The Inner History of the Chinese Revolution (1930) pp. 2–3; Huang Ssŭ-ai 黃嗣艾, 南雷學案 Nan-lei hsüeh-an (1936).]