In the first year of the Kangxi Dynasty, the world was determined, and the anti-Qing restoration was basically hopeless, and huang Zongxi, the widow of the Ming Dynasty, ended more than ten years of ranger life and refocused on learning. From September to winter of that year, he wrote the famous book "Ming Yi to Be Visited". Later generations praised his book as a masterpiece of enlightenment and a precursor to democracy. When we introduce this book, we do not want to use the theories of later generations to describe it, but to explain it according to its own ideas. To interpret the book, you have to start with the title.
Huang Zongxi, the Widow of the Ming Dynasty (1610-1695)
<h1>What does it mean to be visited? </h1>
The title of "Ming Yi to Be Visited" pins on the purpose of the author's writing, which his friend Gu Yanwu has seen. Gu Yanwu said in a letter to Huang Zongxi: "In the affairs of the world, those who have their knowledge may not be affected by the time, but when the time comes or go to their knowledge, the ancient gentleman will write a book to wait, and the king will rise up and get the teacher." This shows that the purpose of writing a book does not necessarily have to serve the contemporary era, because the author's thinking is ahead of time, so he is not born at the right time, but there is no need to be discouraged by this, you can first write it and leave it to future generations, so that future generations can increase their insight and make a difference.
For example, during the time of King Sui, Mizi did not listen to his words, did not follow his plans, and was also persecuted by his captivity. It was not until king Wu had cut down the silk that he came to visit him and asked him for advice on the "Great Law of Heaven and Earth." Huang Zongxi also said in the "Inscription": "Although I am old, I am like the visit of Mizi, or the visit of Shu Jiyan. This is also the meaning of the word "to be visited" in the title of the book.
"Mingyi" is a gua in the "Zhou Yi", its image is Shangkun (earth) and lower separation (fire, light), the light is hidden under the earth, obscure, the world is in great trouble. Zheng Xuan said that this gua tells the story of a gentleman who has fallen into the throne in a chaotic world, which is a crisis of "great difficulties". Just as King Wen was imprisoned in Qili, Jizi was enslaved to Yin Shang, and Huang Zongxi was defeated in Jiangnan in his rebellion against the Qing. The "Ming Yi to be visited" gentleman in the dark generation, wrote "the origin of the country's chaos" and "the fundamental plan of the people" into a book, leaving it for future generations to learn from.
<h1>The monarch is a servant of the people of the world</h1>
The monarch is the core of the social organization structure of feudal absolutism, which has the role of pulling the whole body, and to explore the origin of the chaos in the autocratic country, we must first study the position of the monarch.
According to human nature, people are selfish, good and bad. Therefore, the office of the monarch should be for the benefit of the people of the world, and the public nuisance should be eliminated. As a public figure, the monarch must not have his own interests, but must work hard for the people of the world and be a public servant of the people of the world. Because of this, this position is contrary to the human feelings of the world, so in the ancient times, Xu You, Wu Guang and others were unwilling to take on this heavy responsibility and fled one after another, which is also a phenomenon mentioned in the "Zhuangzi Rang Wang".
People were reluctant to hold public office and had to entrust people like Yao Shunyu to serve the people. Tang Yao was able and conscientious; Yu Shun inspected the world and died in the wilderness of Cangwu; the most tragic and urgent was Dayu, who ran for the world so that his thighs did not grow hair and his calves did not grow flesh, and he was not allowed to enter the house three times.
It is precisely because the monarch is a servant of the people, so "it will not be the people of the world who want to live", and it is necessary to use the term of office to end the service period of the public servant. Therefore, Yao Shun gave way in his later years, the so-called "one who enters and goes". This is the duty of a human king, so Huang Zongxi said: "The ancients took the world as the mainstay, the king as the guest, and the ruler who lived in the world and operated for the world." ”
Huang Zongxi and "Ming Yi To Be Visited"
<h1>The autocratic monarch takes the world as his own property</h1>
In the future generations, the absolute monarch does not think that he needs to benefit and eliminate the harm for the people of the world, but says that the power of the world's interests and harms is in my hands, and he holds the power to distribute the interests. Under the banner of the common good of the world, the absolute monarch violates human feelings and does not allow people to take their own selfish interests and benefit from their own interests, but instead pretends to be the public interests of the world, demands that all people give up private interests and serve it, and says that individual interests should be subordinated to collective interests.
Liu Bang once asked Liu Taigong, "What is the cause of a certain industry, which is more than Zhongduo?" Later generations of people and princes often preached that "there is only one world, and one can become a great cause", and described the world as the cause of a certain person and an organization, which was despicable. Since the absolute monarch regards the world as his property and his private property, he naturally longs to inherit and receive endlessly from generation to generation. However, if the world is an industry, then the people of the world will not avoid it one after another, but will covet it and covet it. As a result, the rise and fall of chaos will also cycle back and forth in the rotation of sitting in the village, and you will sing and I will appear. The victors shouted "Conquer the great cause", and the bankrupt lamented "May there be no life in the world" of the emperor.
In order to escape from this cyclical law of hellly reincarnation, it is necessary to change the position of the monarch, clarify his status as a public servant, and dare to regard the world as an individual's property. The people of the world will "regard it as a vendetta, and call it a only husband", and they will be condemned.
Huang Zongxi also believes that it is better to pin the peace of the world on an absolute monarch than to have no monarch and no servant - "To make no monarch, each man has to be selfish, and every man has to be selfish." ”
<h1>For whom is the official position designed? </h1>
What is a minister? Is the one who regards the monarch as a father, and who reveres and loves him a minister? Is the one who treats the monarch as a saint and boasts and praises a minister? Is the one who regards the monarch as sacred and willing to die at his mercy a minister? Answer: No! Such a person was not a minister, but a flattering and shameless eunuch concubine.
Official positions are designed for the people of the world, and there are many official duties, which cannot be governed by a monarch, and require colleagues and helpers. Therefore, "I am born for the sake of the world, not for the king, and for all the people, not for one surname." "The rule of chaos over the world is not in the rise and fall of one surname, but in the sorrow of all peoples."
Sometimes the decline of a nation is popular, but the prosperity of a country deepens people's disasters. For example, the death of The Emperor was praised by all the people of the world; the rise of the Qin Dynasty and the Mongols caused the world to be poisoned by it. The criterion for judging the rise and fall of chaos does not lie in the size of the country, the strength of the country, or the amount of wealth, but in the happiness of the people.
However, in countries ruled by absolute monarchs, the world was treated as a personal property, and officials became eunuchs and concubines of the emperor. The world no longer believed that official positions were set up for the sake of the world, but that official positions were granted to them by the emperor, who gave them a part of his property, so the officials were grateful and bowed their heads. Their job is only to obey the emperor and please the emperor, regardless of whether the people live or die.
Huang Zongxi believes that "the king is a subject" is a kind of absurdity, the king only has a relationship in office, the service is the master and friend of the king, and when he leaves the job, he becomes a passerby, and does not have an inseparable blood connection like father and son. In fact, kings and subjects are public servants, but they are only "different in name and the same in reality".
Huang Zongxi criticizes "jun as a subject"
<h1>There is a cure and then there is a cure</h1>
Law is the norm governing the world, the public law of the world, and cannot be established for oneself. However, the absolute monarch regards the law as a means of guaranteeing the property, "the so-called law of the family, not the law of the world." ”
Huang Zongxi believes that the state of good governance is based on the public law of the world, so that the benefits of the world are enjoyed by the people of the world, and the equal principle of "nobility is not in the imperial court, and the lowly are not in the grass" is governed according to law. In this state, the desires of the legislators are not mixed into the law, and the more sparse and chaotic the provisions of the law, the more they are not done, "the so-called law of the impossible." ”
This is not the case with authoritarian laws, which fear nothing to do with the world. Since the absolute monarch regarded the world as his own property, the laws he made were bound to "not want its inheritance, and its blessings will be desired to be above." "When the people demand less cumbersome examination and approval, he procrastinates; but when the people produce any beneficial results, he must order restrictions or prohibitions. The so-called "if you do one thing, you are worried about what you can deceive, and you have set up another thing to prevent you from cheating." The more prohibitions, the more complicated the law, the denser the legal network, not only lose the effect of quiet and inaction, but also bury the hidden dangers of chaos in it, the so-called "illegal law also."
Simply put, the real law is the law that serves the common good, and the law of despotism is the law of prevention, the law of defending its regime. If we do not first "cure the law" and correct the law, we will not be able to continue to "govern people."
Huang Zongxi's thoughts have the spirit of practical application through the ages
<h1>Use the right to take the examination to constrain the administrative power</h1>
In Sun Yat-sen's "Constitution of the Five Powers", the concept of the right to examination was proposed.
The election method of official appointment is the ancient Chinese election method, which effectively balances the power of the absolute monarch to elect officials. If the executive power overrides the examination power, then administrative corruption will lead to educational corruption. In ancient times, grassroots officials were selected through examinations rather than elections, and the appointment and dismissal of dignitaries and dignitaries was through internal decisions rather than examinations. As a result, grass-roots officials are unable to represent the will of the people, senior officials cannot guarantee their talents, and detachment from the people and inaction or incompetence are the root causes of corruption among administrators. Therefore, the right to examine should be implemented, and administrative officials should be appointed and dismissed by assessing morality, knowledge, physique, and conduct, and administrative examinations should be combined with democratic elections to create an efficient and clean administrative system.
The right to take the examination has a similar discussion in the "Ming Yi To Be Visited School", Huang Zongxi believes that the function of the school is not only to "raise soldiers" and cultivate talents, but also to be a place for "deliberation". The right and wrong of the policy policy cannot be based on the monarch's personal standard, the monarch has not grasped the truth of the universe, "what the Son of Heaven is not necessarily wrong, and the Son of Heaven does not dare to be self-righteous, and the public is not in the school." Therefore, schools also need to have the function of participating in political deliberations.
However, in the era of despotism, "the right and wrong of the world come from the imperial court", all of which are guided and standardd by the personal views of the Son of Heaven. People thought that the school's deliberations were too slow to help the administrative efficiency, so they were abandoned and not used, so the school degenerated into a "college" and became a place of struggle between the Donglin Party and the castration party.
Therefore, Huang Zongxi advocated the restoration of the school's "nurturing" and "deliberative" functions, arguing that the sacrificial liquor in Taixue should have a status equivalent to that of the prime minister, or be filled by the prime minister who has completed his term of office. Sake sacrifice can participate in the deliberations of the Son of Heaven and the ministers, "there are deficiencies in politics, and sake sacrifice is blunt." In local counties and counties, it is also necessary to set up a school official, and let the famous Confucians supervise the study of politics and preside over public deliberations. This is the idea that the right to education constrains the executive power.
In terms of elections, Huang Zongxi believes that it is necessary to combine recommendation and examination, not to strictly select scholars and be lenient in the use of personnel, but to select and promote talents loosely, and to appoint talents strictly. In this way, we can avoid the work style of laziness and idleness as soon as we enter the system.
In addition, the "Ming Yi To Be Visited" also discusses many issues such as the prime minister, the establishment of the capital, the centralization and decentralization of power, the military system, and the financial plan, which can only be discussed in the next part.