The capital is the seat of the central government and the political center of the country. Where the capital is built has a great influence on the safety of the country, the bitterness of the people, the prosperity and decline of the nation, and the future of development. Therefore, where the capital city was built is a major political issue and a historical decision.
In the "Jiandu" chapter, Huang Zongxi believes that the instant collapse of the Ming Dynasty was due to the geographical failure of the capital. Huang Zongxi compares the Tang Dynasty with the ming Dynasty' capital. He cited the history of the Tang Dynasty to confirm the significance of the establishment of the capital to the development of the country. For example, "What is the urgency of a great power?" The calamity of An Lushan, Xuanzong Xingshu; the difficulty of Tufan, The Emperor Xingying; the rebellion of Zhu Chi, the dezong xingfengtian; the central plains of Beijing, so that there is an emergency and the situation is unhindered", the Tang Dynasty capital city is flat and accessible, and the transportation is convenient. In the face of the chaos of national fortunes, the princes and nobles of the Tang Dynasty and the people of the capital took refuge calmly, and then returned to the capital to revive the dynasty; in the Taiping Dynasty, this should be attributed to the geographical location of its capital, which enabled the three emperors to be able to, and Huang Zongxi used this to show that the location of the Tang Dynasty capital was correct.
Emperor Yizong of the Ming Dynasty, however, because the capital was in Beijing, was "isolated in the north, the sound and dust were not consistent, and for a while it could neither come out nor be reached, so he had to be martyred." Not only that, due to the drawbacks of the establishment of the capital in the Ming Dynasty, "the spirit of the upper and lower levels was scattered in the Kouzhi" and had no intention of "ruling the world". The two are compared, and the advantages and disadvantages are self-evident.
Huang Zongxi stated the main points of the site selection of a country's capital in the "Ming Yi To Be Visited", and after comparing the multiple historical and ancient capitals, he pointed out: There is a king, when the capital is built in Nanjing. Chang'an is the longest-running city in Chinese history as the capital of the state, but Huang Zongxi believes that Chang'an is no longer suitable as the capital of the emperor because of the times. During the Qin and Han dynasties, the Guanzhong region was full of customs, and the surrounding agriculture was very developed and the population was large. In terms of terrain, Chang'an is also easy to defend and difficult to attack, and as a capital city, it is enough to look at the east. However, with the passage of the times, the south finally got rid of the title of "barbarian land" through a series of efforts and development, and the country's economic center of gravity has begun to shift like the south, especially after the Southern Song Dynasty, the south has made rapid economic progress, while the north has always been in constant war, the economy is weak, the people are not happy, and it is no longer suitable for being the capital of the country. Therefore, in the last years of the Ming Dynasty, the land of Wuyue at that time was the treasury of the state, which was the most suitable place for the establishment of the capital.
The future is in history. "If there is a king, what will be the restoration?" In the face of the issue of the establishment of the capital, since ancient times, the Chinese people will have two kinds of ideas: looking forward and backward.
"Looking forward", that is, where to go in the future. Where the capital is built is conducive to conforming to the trend of the development of the times, to the future of the country and the nation, and to consolidating rule.
"Looking backwards", that is, taking the history of the establishment of the capital by successive emperors as a foothold, the ancient capital of the feudal empire believes that Guanzhong is the famous capital of the feudal dynasty since ancient times, and people have always praised it as a symbol of the feudal empire, so they advocate "returning to the old capital". It can be seen that the people who take this as a foothold have obviously not yet shaken off the shackles of the feudal ideological system in the jiandu problem.
Huang Zongxi's argument is mainly aimed at the old and conservative ideas of feudalism. Huang Zongxi believed that the best choice to replace Yanjing and become the capital city should be Jinling, because the Jinling people were brilliant, rich in products, and convenient transportation. At the same time, he uses the analogy of "treasury" to illustrate this point. Huang Zongxi believes that the cash cabinet in the vault is the most important and should be guarded by himself, not entrusted to servants. Slaves and concubines should be used to guard the secondary court. And Jinling and Yanjing correspond to the cash cabinet and the gate court respectively, and now taking Yanjing as the capital is equivalent to guarding the secondary gate court yourself; abandoning Jinling without use is equivalent to handing over the cash cabinet to slaves and concubines to guard, then there will be disaster. This metaphor of Huang Zongxi is easy to understand, and it is easy for us to know the reason why he advocated the establishment of the capital in Jinling.
The pen of "Jiandu" is: "Times are different!" "By the time of the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Guanzhong region had long lagged behind the southeast. The southeast region is rich in products, industry and commerce, foreign trade, culture and education are increasingly prosperous, and transportation is convenient. Huang Zongxi was born, grew up, traveled to study, and fought in the heart of the Jiangnan region, and his experience of the above social conditions was profound. Through the analysis of history and the comparison of regions, Huang Zongxi has the overall situation in mind and faces the future, and he firmly believes that Jinling is the ideal political, economic and cultural center of the future.
The location of the capital of the dynasty has its historical, political, economic, military, cultural and other considerations. Huang Zongxi's thought has great historical limitations, because it simply believes that the location of the capital is the cause of the fall of the dynasty, argues that there is contingency, and fails to recognize the internal laws of history. However, huang Zongxi pays special attention to economic factors on the issue of site selection, reflecting his noble feelings of patriotism for the people, and is in line with his "world-oriented" social blueprint.