Huang Zunxian: Xingmin Rights, Afterword to The Wisdom of the People

He believed that Japan's Meiji Restoration experience was worth emulating, so he decided to write a "Chronicle of Japan". From the collection of materials to the final draft, it took nearly ten years, divided into twelve journals, such as academic history, criminal law history, official history, etiquette and customs, etc., forty volumes.

Chief Writer / Xue Wei

Huang Zunxian (1848~1905) (Courtesy of FOTOE)

A year before his death, Huang Zunxian reviewed his own life in a letter to Liang Qichao, saying: "Since I was young, I never had the heart to seek wealth and wealth, but quite the idea of a tree name... Gai Qi's ambition is to change the law, in civil rights." He first sent an envoy to Japan, wrote the "Chronicle of Japan", criticized the imperial system, advocated learning from the Western political system, and then founded the "ShiJi Bao" and went to Hunan to implement the New Deal.

Mr. Zhong Shuhe said in the book "From East to West": "Huang Zunxian is not just a poet, he is first and foremost a reformist, an Enlightenment, and a patriotic politician. Huang Zunxian was the first to introduce to China the experiences and lessons learned by Japanese people during the Meiji Restoration, and Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao, and even the Guangxu Emperor were deeply influenced by it.

Huang Zunxian, nicknamed the master of the Renjinglu, was known as an outstanding poet, diplomat, politician, educator, and educator. Originally from Jiaying Prefecture (present-day Meizhou City), Guangdong Province, he was born in 1848 (the 28th year of Qing Daoguang) and died in 1905 (the 31st year of Qing Guangxu). At the age of 17, he wrote a poem saying, "Confucian students do not go out, let alone the affairs of the world." At the age of 20, he became a show talent. In the second year of Guangxu, he was elected and subsequently became a diplomat. From December 1877, Huang Zunxian stayed in Japan for more than four years, at a time when the Meiji Restoration had been underway for more than a decade and the face of Japan had begun to change profoundly. He believed that Japan's Meiji Restoration experience was worth emulating, so he decided to write a "Chronicle of Japan".

From the collection of materials to the final draft, it took nearly ten years to collect materials and was divided into twelve chronicles, including academic history, criminal law history, official history, and etiquette and customs, and forty volumes. Generally speaking, a country's culture has three levels, the first is the visible artifact level, then the institutional level, and finally the concept behind the system. Huang Zunxian has covered Japan's material, educational, and political systems, as well as his study of Western democratic ideas.

The Chronicle of Japan and craftsmanship says: "The countries of Europe and the United States today advocate craftsmanship... The cannon of a thousand guns, the guns of a series of guns, with the rules of solidity, with the war of the gram, then its art is used in military affairs; the ship of the steamer, the line of flying electricity, although tens of millions of miles, is reached at once, then its art funds are used for national use... China is dismissive of craftsmanship. The utensils, however, are still painted gourds, following the old style. Nowadays, the craftsmanship of all nations, with the mutual teaching of the Fa, is changing with each passing day and becoming more and more advanced. When the husband is poor, he changes, and if he changes, he changes. ”

In the Chronicle of National Unity, Huang Zunxian categorized the political systems of the world: "There is one person who is called a monarch; there is a person who is called a democrat; and there is a person who divides the power of the upper and lower levels and is called the monarch and the co-lord." He believes that there are many drawbacks to the one-man autocracy, and that the Meiji Restoration was a repudiation of Japan's old autocratic system, "the intention of honoring the king is not to honor the king, but also to overthrow the shogunate."

He saw that the monarchy after the Meiji Restoration was different from the monarchy of ancient times, and that the new form of government was a system of government in which the whole country was governed by the law and "everything was decided by public opinion." He predicted that "in recent days, the people's hearts have gradually become infected with Western France, and there are even advocates of civil rights and freedoms... The kingdom of the monarch, which has been more than 2,500 years old, has since become a co-lord or a democracy."

Zhong Shuhe said: "After coming to the United States from Japan in 1882, Huang Zunxian further came into contact with the political ideas and political system of the bourgeoisie, and gradually began to form political ideas on law change and civil rights. He 'took the words of Rousseau and Montesquieu and read them, and his mind changed, knowing that the world of peace would be in democracy'. But he always doubted the people's ability to self-govern independently, and "still wanted to uphold sovereignty to enlighten the people's wisdom", that is, he wanted to follow the example of Japan, to implement top-down changes under an emperor, and was a constitutional monarchist. "As a Confucian and official, he would not have thought of completely overthrowing the imperial system.

According to modern Western thought, he said that there are two sources of civil rights, one is the natural human rights, "people are born by the orders of heaven and earth, each has a way of freedom and autonomy; on rights, it is said that the monarch, father and son, men and women have the same rights"; the other source is the social contract, the oath made between the government and the people, the first of which is "everything is decided by the public", saying that the common people have the right to participate in state affairs. He said in the "Japanese Miscellaneous Poems" that after Genpei, the Japanese emperor, like the Eastern Emperor of the Zhou Dynasty, only had a fictitious position.

In the 1884 election of the president of the United States, he wrote a long poem about this matter, first pointing out the good side of American politics, "red, yellow, black and white, all equal treatment; everyone is free, all things are salty and profitable", and the elected president is "worthy of the great throne" in the end. But he believes that the election is dark and ugly, such as personal attacks by the two parties. These realizations further contributed to his constitutional monarchy, although he later said in a speech of the Southern Society that the feudal emperors did not have the ability to govern the country: "The so-called born in the deep palace, grown up in the hands of women, arrogant and dimwitted, as for not distinguishing between wheat, also? but he is above the people, and the whole country is governed..."

In the "Chronicle of Officials", Huang Zunxian expounded the advantages of the separation of powers, and Huang Zunxian noted that "Japan has opened a parliament, and the speed of progress is unprecedented in all countries in ancient and modern times." He found that when the West set up officials and established governments, "there is no distinction between its officials, no distinction between inside and outside, no difference between culture and martial arts, and its separation of duties and governance is orderly", which he believes is similar to China's "Zhou Li".

The "Chronicle of Etiquette" introduces the local organizations of Japan: "The world values people, but it is based on the strength of people who can meet people, and the animals and animals cannot be the same." The greatest force in the world is like a joint force... Therefore, they are united, so they are polite to distinguish, there is law to be neat, and there is affection to connect, so that they can maintain the strength of the people without scattering. ”

The "Chronicle of Neighborly Relations" talks about the opening up policy of the West and Japan: "Property is connected by whether there is a connection between property and not, and it is possible to seize people with all the advantages of the location." If Japan refuses to close the door, "there is still a flood of grass and grass that has not yet opened its ears."

The "Academic Chronicle" describes Japan's learning from the West: "In the first year of meiji, there were 50 overseas students; 2 to 150 people; by five years, there were about 1,000 people... Nowadays, the princes of the road, the large rate of returnees from foreign schools also. ”

The reformists believe that changing the law requires the promotion of people's rights and the development of people's wisdom, and the development of people's wisdom requires the cultivation of talents and the establishment of schools. In his poems, Huang Zunxian also praised Japan's advanced education system, believing that Japan's education system was very perfect, and the curriculum focused on practicality. "There are foreign Chinese schools, which are based on English. There are primary schools whose subjects are reading, learning words, arithmetic, geography, history, self-cultivation, and the shallowness of physics, physiology, and naturalism, and there are middle schools, whose subjects are also like primary schools, and those who learn their highest grades are fine in their art. If there is a normal school, then cultivate teachers in order to benefit those who are also widely beneficial. ”

In 1902, based on his investigation of Japan, Huang Zunxian put forward a six-point criticism of the direction of running schools at that time, arguing that schools could only be revitalized if there were normal schools; the focus was on elementary and middle schools rather than universities, and the emphasis was on general studies rather than specialized studies.

When Huang Zunxian observed Japan, he often used his intellectual background to compare it, "Discussing Western law with Yu, its establishment originated from Mozi... It is said that people have the right to autonomy, then the "Mozi" is still the same. It is said that if you love your neighbor as yourself, then Mozi's love is also. It is said to be the only god, to protect the soul, then the "Mozi" of the honor of the heavenly ming god also." He also said that the Westerners were good at the study of instruments, which originated from the Mo family's preparation and the art of flying kites; Western studies were proficient in physics, which originated from the first and second parts of the Ink Classic. This may make it easier for Chinese scholars to accept Western things, but it may also make them continue to be arrogant. In Japanese schools, "the Five Classics Of the High Pavilion are deleted, and the Taixue students guard the rabbit garden." The Confucian "Poems", "Books", "Rituals", "Yi", and "Spring and Autumn" Five Classics were shelved, and the "Taixue Students", an institution of higher learning that taught Confucian classics, could only go to the "Shou Rabbit Garden", which he probably thought was very inappropriate.

In September of the 22nd year of Guangxu, the Guangxu Emperor summoned Huang Zunxian and asked him why Western politics had won over China, and he replied: "The strength of the Taixi is changed by the law." The following year, the Guangxu Emperor sent Huang Zunxian to Hunan to try out the new policy with inspector Chen Baozhen. In the practice of restoration in Hunan, Huang Zunxian fully drew on the harvest of his inspection in Japan, and successively set up the Shiwu School, the Arithmetic School, the Xiang BaoGuan, the Southern Society, the Wubei Academy, and the Security Bureau. The Security Bureau was the prototype of the later police station, and Huang Zunxian believed in the "Chronicle of Japan" that "if you want to govern the country and security, you must start with the police", and advocated the removal of military service and replaced by the police.

<h1>Postscript</h1>

After the Guangxu Emperor was deposed, the 50-year-old Huang Zunxian was dismissed from public office and returned to his hometown to begin an eight-year life as a poet. The Guangxu Emperor's failure to emulate the Meiji Emperor made him think that perhaps China's reform should take another path of rapid progress: "China's progress must first be based on nationalism, followed by constitutional government, which can be asserted." Although, either gradually, or by rapid progress, or by giving it from above, or by fighting for the people, how can we achieve this goal? Then I don't know! In the last poem left by Huang Zunxian, he still remembers the change of law and civil rights: "People have spoken for twenty centuries, there is no restoration of the imperial system; the whole world is converging, and the degree is inevitable." ”