Abstract: Huang Zongxi's criticism of "there is a rule of law and no law" and claims that "there is a rule of law and then there is a rule of law", which is not a dispute between "rule of man" and "rule of law", but an argument that "law" has a more important and more fundamental role than "people" in any social political system, so the improvement of politics should first start from the reform of "law". In terms of "governing the law", Huang Zongxi criticized the "law of the ancestors", believing that the "law" of the dynasties "below three generations" was based on the principle of "private world", so the "law of the ancestors" was not enough to become the fundamental principle of good governance, and would bring many adverse consequences. In terms of "governing people", the new pattern of rule imagined by Huang Zongxi is a "group worker" up and down the monarchy. He explicitly divided the monarch from the father and the son, the former being an acquired agreement for the purpose of "the world", and the latter being an innate natural relationship of blood. Thus, to a certain extent, Huang Zongxi's political discourse departed from the original orderly thinking mode with classical ontological overtones, and had the meaning of modern secular social imagination.
Keywords: governing people; governing the law; "Ming Yi to be visited"; secular society
In Huang Zongxi's "Ming Yi To Be Visited", the ideal politics of "more than three generations" is based on the principle of "public", while the realpolitik of "three generations below" is based on the principle of "private". 1 The system established under different political principles will be completely different, from the "rule of three generations" to the dynastic monarchy in the real history of "three generations or less", which in Huang Zongxi's view is "chaotic" from the beginning. This is a system of "chaos and no rule" produced by the political principle of "selfishness", which does not work well, and the dynasties change continuously, even causing even the monarch to be unwilling to be a monarch, so there is an urgent need to work on restoring the "rule of three generations". It can be seen that in terms of value judgments, although "there is chaos and no rule below three generations" seems to be a cliché of the Confucian moral ideal of benevolence and righteousness, Huang Zongxi believes that it is mainly reflected in the political system, that is, it boils down to "more than three generations have the law, and less than three generations cannot" ("Original Law")2. Huang Zongxi believes that "having the law" is the guarantee for the good operation of a society, and the "impossible" social politics is a chaotic world, even if it seems to be prosperous, it is doomed to not last. This involves the very famous set of propositions in the history of Confucian political thought, "governing people" and "governing the law", which have been completely newly discussed in Huang Zongxi's pen.
Although scholars have almost always discussed the set of propositions of "governing people" and "governing the law" in the past, in the author's opinion, researchers still lack the necessary clean-up of Huang Zongxi's exposition of the following three important aspects: (1) Huang Zongxi's criticism of "there is no rule for governing people"; (2) Huang Zongxi's criticism of "the law of the ancestors"; and (3) Huang Zongxi's imaginary picture of "governing people". The following discussions in these three aspects are re-sorted and clarified in this article.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="21" > criticism of "there is no cure for people"</h1>
When it comes to "governing people" and "governing the law", we must first return to "Xunzi". As we all know, among the many schools of pre-Qin Confucianism, Xunzi was a thinker who attached great importance to law and system, so his important disciples Li Si and Han Fei became representatives of Fajia thought in the future, which is probably also an inevitable trend. In the Xunzi Jundao chapter, there is such a famous statement:
There are chaotic kings and no chaotic countries; there are people who govern people, and there is no law. The Law of Yi is not dead, but yi is not in the world; the law of Yu still exists, and the king of Xia is not the king. Therefore, the law cannot be independent, and the class cannot be self-contained; those who gain it will survive, and those who lose it will die. The One who rules the Law, the One who rules; the Gentleman, the One who rules the Law. Therefore, if there is a gentleman, the law is provincial enough to be pervasive; if there is no gentleman, the law is in place, and it is impossible to respond to the changes of events, and it is enough to mess up. Those who do not know the righteousness of the Dhamma, and those who are righteous in the Dhamma, though they are knowledgeable, will be chaotic in their affairs.
In his analysis of the theory of political chaos, Xun Zi believed that there were two elements of "man" and "law", of which "law cannot be independent" and needs to be implemented by someone ("gentleman"), otherwise the "law" will be useless. Therefore, compared with the "law", "man" has a more fundamental role in politics, and the importance of "king's way" can be highlighted. This is roughly in line with Mencius's argument that "good deeds are not enough for government, and disciples are not enough for oneself" (Mencius Li Lou Shang), which is actually a phenomenon that can be understood by appealing to the experience of daily public life. As some sharp contemporary critics have argued, it certainly belongs to a "rule by law" political thinking model, and there is a significant gap with the concept of "rule of law", especially the modern rule of law ideology that accompanies the concept of equality. 3 Relatively speaking, the "rule of law" emphasizes the universal authority of the law, emphasizing the supremacy of the law and the equality of all people. Although this is the case in concept, the question is, in real political practice, is "rule by law" and "rule by law" really inseparable? Or more simply raise a question: In the political practice dominated by the concept of "governing by law", is it impossible for the situation of "rule by law" to form and exist? In fact, it is very common for politicians to promote the social community towards the "rule of law" through the implementation of "rule by law".
Obviously, at least in the literal sense, the simple "rule of law" has not been able to exclude evil law, and evil law may at least form a relatively stable situation of "rule of law" for a period of time through power and so on. In Aristotle' view, the idea of "the rule of good law" has two meanings: "Established laws are universally obeyed, and the laws to which everyone obeys should themselves be well-made laws." ”4
Huang Zongxi is keenly aware of this, and he explicitly proposes from the opposite side that the "illegal law" (bad law) actually plays a bad binding role on "governing people" (good politicians); and sometimes, this binding effect is so strong that even "governing people" is helpless. In other words, Huang Zongxi found that in the past political practice, the phenomenon of "rule by law" often existed universally, but most of these "laws" were problematic, resulting in the effect of "rule by law" being bad, or even very bad. People are not fully aware of this and have gone to improve the "Fa," so even though there is "governing people," there is nothing they can do about it. Therefore, Huang Zongxi believes that the most serious problem in realpolitik is in "law" and not in "people". His exposition does not point to the trade-off, tension or even choice between the rule of man and the rule of law, as Meng and Xun did, but directly points to the "change of law".
Here, we must first briefly review and sort out the exposition ideas of the "Original Law" section in the "Ming Yi To Be Visited". What Huang Zongxi wants to review in the "Original Law" section is the "illegal law" that arose under the political principle of "private", and he believes that the "law of three generations" is based on "hiding the world under the world", and the "law of the hereafter" is based on "hiding the world in the basket", which is the political principle of the opposition between public and private. Based on this argument, Huang Zongxi gave the strongest criticism of the "Law of the Hereafter". He then responded in turn to three potentially powerful criticisms. The first is the issue of the "law of the patriarchs" of later dynasties, which we will discuss more specifically later. The second is that skeptics believe that "the rule of chaos under the heavens is not related to the survival of the law", and Huang Zongxi responded from the perspective of historical narrative. He believes that the Qin and Yuan dynasties in Chinese history have lost the beautiful law of the "three generations", which has led to the decline of Chinese society. The validity of Huang Zongxi's argument is very dubious, because it may have a strong premise derived from cultural belief identity, and there may even be racial presuppositions, which we will leave aside. Here, we should first focus on the third argument, that is, Huang Zongxi's response to a criticism of "there is no rule for people to be governed", giving this rebuttal response:
That is, the commentator said: "There is a cure for people, but there is no cure." "I think there is a rule and then there is a rule. Since the illegal law shackles the brothers and sisters of the people of the world, that is, those who can govern, they will not be able to overcome their suspicions; if they have facilities, they will be content with simplicity in terms of their share of the gains, and they cannot have the name of extraordinarily meritorious service. To make the law of the first kings exist, there is no extra-legal meaning in it. If his person is also, he can have no intention of doing nothing; his person is not also, nor will he profoundly nett it, but also harm the world. Therefore, there is a cure and then there is a cure. (Original Law)
As we have already mentioned, Huang Zongxi astutely pointed out that in political practice, the role of "law" will actually take precedence over "people.". He gave a more thorough argument from both positive and negative aspects. On the one hand, a bad "law" ("illegal law") can "shackle the brothers and sisters of the world", and the "people under the world" here include all the people in the political community, especially the good reformers among the politicians ("people who can govern"), that is, those who want to break through the constraint framework of the existing "law" to improve realpolitik, and their actions are also constrained and constrained by the "law". On the other hand, if there is a good "law" ("the law of the first kings"), a good politician can of course "do nothing" in principle, while a bad politician cannot do whatever he wants because he is constrained by the law. That is to say, because of the "rule of law", the bad government in realpolitik that varies from "people" may be greatly limited and prevented, and its adverse consequences will be reduced to a lower degree.
Of course, Huang Zongxi's argument is based on the fact that the value of the "law of the first king" and the "law of the illegal" can be completely dichotomous. In the real world, the application of "law" is obviously more complicated, but this does not affect Huang Zongxi's keen observation and judgment of the powerful role of the "rule of law" in realpolitik that is difficult for anyone to easily overstep. The latter is the true meaning of Huang Zongxi's criticism of "there is no rule for people" and put forward that "there is a rule of law and then there is a rule of law".
In other words, Huang Zongxi did not propose that "rule of law" is higher than "rule by man" in terms of the ideal political picture, but in terms of improving and reversing the actual bad politics, from the practical point of view, "law" plays a more important and fundamental role than "people". In Huang Zongxi's view, the efforts to improve realpolitik need to start from the improvement of the fundamental level of "law", and cannot just expect the emergence of "governing people" out of thin air.
It should be noted that for this passage, readers often think that Huang Zongxi is a criticism of Xunzi, which is obviously a misreading of the text. In this regard, Yu Ronggen pointed out that although Huang Zongxi mentioned this sentence in the Xunzi here, the four words "that is, the commentator" have clearly indicated that the object of his criticism is not Xunzi, but some other "commentators" envisioned; Moreover, from the specific content of the argument, huang Zongxi's criticism and the relevant context of Xunzi are not intended to constitute a direct antagonistic relationship. 5 Simply put, Xunzi and Mencius observed the path of political degeneration, believing that even the perfect "law" needs to be practiced accordingly by "people" (gentlemen and rulers), otherwise the "law" is still lost, while Huang Zongxi believes that today's "law" is an "illegal law" from the practice of improving the actual bad politics, so it is necessary to first look at the fundamentals of the "law" and not just look forward to the moral and political practice of the two or three wise people. The two are not tit-for-tat, and Huang Zongxi's criticism here is not aimed at Meng or Xun, but at other "commentators" who rely entirely on meritocracy and morality to improve politics.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="184" >2. Criticism of the "Law of the Patriarchs"</h1>
In the study of ancient Chinese political and institutional history, scholars have long pointed out that the "law of the ancestors" played a positive role in the traditional Chinese dynastic monarchy, because it largely maintained the relative balance between the monarch and society. For the specific mechanism of action, there have been many relevant studies and discussions in the past, and there is no need to repeat it here. 6
The apologists for the "Law of the Ancestors" envisaged by Huang Zongxi in the "Original Law" of the "Ming Yi To Be Visited" claim that "one generation has a generation of laws, and the descendants regard the ancestors as filial piety." This is actually a precise summary of the "Law of the Ancestors", which reveals the greatest political function of the "Law of the Ancestors": it makes the politics of one generation have a general order similar to the "Fundamental Law", and ensures the relative stability and order of politics in the process of social development. In the process of operating the imperial system of dynasties centered on the emperor, the "Law of the Patriarchs" can reduce the influence of accidental factors such as the personal qualities, personalities and preferences of different monarchs and courtiers in the succession to the throne, and alleviate the social and political turmoil of the entire empire.
However, Huang Zongxi, who was familiar with the operating mechanism of this dynastic political system, made the following harsh criticism of the "Law of the Patriarchs":
The law of the husband is illegal, and the former king does not win over his selfish desires to create them, and the later kings may not overcome his selfish desires to be bad. The bad one is enough to harm the world, and the one who creates it is not the one who harms the world. But he will want to circumvent this glue and paint, in the name of the Bo Charter, and this vulgar Confucianism. (Original Law)
Huang Zongxi's criticism directly addresses the legitimacy of the "Law of the Patriarchs" itself. He believes that a generation of founding monarchs ("former kings") was already an "illegal law" when they created the "Law of the Patriarchs". The Later King destroyed the "Law of the Ancestors", and sometimes (Huang Zongxi used the word "or" here) was even worse than private. Although it is true that later monarchs do not abide by the "law of the ancestors" and harm the world with their private interests, this does not mean that it is right to strictly abide by and enforce the "law of the ancestors", because the "law of the ancestors" itself is already an "illegal law". In some cases, "what the ancestors did is not necessarily appropriate", Huang Zongxi's implication is obviously that in some cases, the "queen" may also violate the law of the ancestors out of public will. Worse still, critics of the queen are in many cases competing to "fake ancestors to suppress the queen", and even party portals use this to power each other. All of this eventually led to the "absurdity of the Theory of the Ancestors" ("Placing Phases").
In Huang Zongxi's view, the fundamental reason for the emergence of the "illegal law" is that it is completely based on the establishment principle of "private". The "ancestors" of the dynasties were not holy kings created by "gong tianxia", and the real "rule" must be based on the establishment principle of "gong". In other words, regardless of the efficacy, Huang Zongxi was completely dissatisfied with the "Law of the Patriarchs" as a political mechanism similar to the "Fundamental Law" in the politics of dynasties. He did not completely push the responsibility for "chaos and no rule" to future monarchs, blindly accusing them of failing to achieve "filial piety to the ancestors of the Law", but proposed to re-establish the real "Law" based on the principle of "justice". Huang Zongxi believes that only by changing the law in this way can the purpose of "ruling the country" be achieved, which is also the first step of the institutional plan imagined in the "Ming Yi To Be Visited", with the meaning of "constitution-making".
It can be seen that Huang Zongxi's criticism of the "law of the ancestors" constitutes a strong support for his political innovation practice proposition of "having a rule and then ruling people". Generally speaking, Huang Zongxi's practice of political innovation is to first achieve a benign establishment of social and political order by establishing a real "rule of law." In his view, the primary reason for "chaos and no rule below three generations" is that "three generations below cannot be", and the laws of the past dynasties, including the so-called "law of the ancestors", are not advisable.
Knowing this, we can already see that Huang Zongxi's institutional imagination has progressed from the initial theoretical exposition of the establishment principle to the operational level of political practice. First of all, the first step is to clarify the "illegal law" of reforming the previous dynastic system with the principle of "public world", in order to achieve the solid backing guarantee that the new politics truly has the "rule of law". Huang Zongxi stressed that this is the first step in political innovation to "rule". Of course, this is obviously a step forward to modern institutional civilization than the dynastic principle of the "Law of the Patriarchs", and it has the meaning of "constitutionalism" in modern open society. 7
However, Huang Zongxi did not just stay and be satisfied with such a level of discourse on the principles of modern constitutionalism, and his "Ming Yi To Be Visited" further outlined a design blueprint in the basic social and political framework. Although, as the research of many scholars in the past has shown, this picture seems in many specific ways, we see that its theoretical structure is so strict that it is close to the academic writing of "political philosophy" in the true sense8, and even makes many contemporary scholars suspect that it is related to the western learning of the late Ming Dynasty. However, for the latter kind of doubt and speculation, the academic community has not yet been able to find sufficient and powerful evidence. 9
This design blueprint is about "the world", that is, it is related to the entire human society, and Huang Zongxi must start from "governing people" here. It is undeniable that the political operations of human societies to date, regardless of the form of government, have relied heavily on the leadership group, because they are at least professional politicians. Implemented in Huang Zongxi's institutional imagination, of course, it involves the picture of "governing people" whose importance is second only to that of "governing the law". In fact, in the construction and design of Huang Zongxi's "rule of law", the primary task is of course to imagine and think about how to arrange the basic picture of "governing people" in the form of "law".
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="186" >3, "Governing People" Picture: Group Work to Govern</h1>
Through the previous discussion, we can already see that Huang Zongxi's proposition that "there is a rule of law and then there is a rule of law" is not equivalent to simply emphasizing the rule of law and neglecting the rule of man, but keenly points out that the "law" itself has a more important decisive role in any political system. The quality of the "law" will directly determine the good and evil of politics, which is difficult for "people" (those who are in power) to fundamentally make up for or change, so the "rule of the world" must begin with the establishment of the "rule of law." Obviously, Huang Zongxi's so-called "law" here actually has the characteristics of a "fundamental law," and the goal he wants to achieve is to "change the law." 10 The next problem is naturally that in Huang Zongxi's imagination, even after the "rule of law", the operation of politics still depends on "governing people" to control and implement, otherwise, the poor quality of the politicians can only be forced to maintain a relatively normal order for a short period of time, "not to the deep snare, against the world" ("the original law"), which is obviously not a long-term solution. So, in Huang Zongxi's view, what kind of picture should "governing people" be?
The main body of the traditional Chinese Confucian picture of "governing people" is that of kings, subjects, and scholars. On the one hand, we know that the emperors of the Qing Dynasty had many proverbs and aphorisms such as "only one person governs the world, and it is better to serve one person in the world" and "the rule of chaos in the world is all tied to the body and one heart of the lord", many of which are still in the Forbidden City in Beijing and can be seen everywhere. They were used to warn the monarch (perhaps mainly the Qing emperor, who was deeply educated by Confucianism), to shoulder the heavy responsibility of the world, and to guard against fear at all times. The study of history has also shown that the strict diligence of the emperors of the Qing Dynasty is rare in Chinese history. It is true that they have been able to practice it to a large extent, and have put into practice such governing ideas and political dogmas more strictly and practically. 11 Among these ideas and dogmas is a political ethic that emphasizes that politicians should bear responsibility for their actions, the "ethics of responsibility" proposed by MaxWeber. It certainly has its own important significance in political practice, and it is also in line with the basic teachings that the mainstream confucian thinkers have always emphasized on national politics. 12
On the other hand, we know that as one of the most basic classics of Confucianism, there are so-called "eight articles" in the University, which has been regarded as a basic program of orthodox Confucianism since the Song and Ming dynasties. It requires that the cultivation and governance from the individual's body and mind to the home, the country, and the world must be "consistent." In the Confucian tradition, this "consistency" is not only a kind of "extension" of cultivation to political practice, but also a commitment from metaphysical ontology and even cosmology, which has been further expanded and strengthened in Song Ming theory. 13 In terms of practice, under the influence of Confucian culture, ancient Chinese society was of course not only a life guide for the elite of scholars and doctors who would always be in and out of the imperial civil and political system, but also a requirement and even admonition to the emperor. The so-called "wrongdoing of the heart of the emperor" is exactly what the ancient Confucians diligently pursued: because the emperor is the center of politics, his every move is related to the future of the entire country and society; in turn, for the elite scholars, this means that only "the king" can "walk the way". 14
However, Huang Zongxi's thinking is different, and his imagination of ideal rule is a picture of the elite ruling group of "mass workers". The so-called "group work" literally contains at least two elements: one is the "group", that is, it is not a one-person thing; the other is "work", that is, it is essentially a work. Huang Zongxi, who draws an analogy with the work scene of "trolling carpentry", says this:
Fu ruled the world with a great muran, the former singing evil, the latter singing Xu. The king and the subject, the one who co-drags the wood also. If the hand is not grasped, the foot is not walked, the dragger will only laugh before the dragger, from the troll to think that it is good, and the duty of the troll is absurd. ("The Original Minister")
The reason why Huang Zongxi has such a picture of "dragging a big tree together", instead of using physical functions, mental morality, clan structure, or the natural universe to carry out ontological order discourse, as was common to many political thinkers in the east and west in ancient times, is first of all because he is fully aware that the huge political system is no longer a one-person thing. The so-called "the world of the fate of the husband is great, not one person can rule, and the division of rule is based on group work" ("Original Minister"), politics is not something that one person can bear, but must rely on "group work". Moreover, this division was a "common tug-of-war", with Huang Zongxi claiming that the officials and ministers were "kings of the body" ("Phase Placement"), rather than following any other classical ontological hierarchical order on earth. 15 Thus, the "work" of the "group worker" is only a difference in the division of labor in cooperation, not a difference in the status of the monarch and the subject of the father and son or even the master and slave type.
In fact, this is also consistent with Huang Zongxi's attitude towards "ontology". The so-called "mind has no essence, but the power of the mind, that is, its essence"16 This basic position gives a higher priority to the practical experience of daily life. In this sense, Huang Zongxi's exposition is indeed more modern, and even a modern secular view of "equality" seems to have begun to be reflected in his picture of "governing people".
But we also do not need to dwell too much on the question of the historical origin of this modernity, because Huang Zongxi's political imagination of "group workers" here is of course first of all more directly and closely related to the political culture of scholars and doctors who "rule the world together" since the Song Dynasty, and does not necessarily have to be imported from Taixi. 17 Regarding the political culture of the Song Dynasty scholars, as Yu Yingshi's research clarifies:
"Taking the world as one's own responsibility" can be regarded as a kind of collective consciousness of the "scholars" of the Song Dynasty, which is not unique to a very small number of scholars with particularly lofty ideals; it is also manifested at different levels and in different ways, let alone at every turn, and it is not easy to rise to the highest degree of comprehensive reconstruction of order. 18
Such a collective spirit of the Confucian masters of the Song Dynasty was finally implemented in political practice, from "establishing a stable local system" to participating in and promoting the innovation of central policies, a new political and cultural atmosphere was gradually formed. 19 Moreover, this atmosphere of action, brought about by the conscious ideas and principles of the scholars, was accepted by the imperial system:
"Ruling the world together" or "co-ruling" with the emperor was a principle that the Confucian scholars and doctors of the Song Dynasty always adhered to. The formal acceptance of the concept of "the common state is" symbolized the recognition of this basic principle by the imperial authorities. 18
However, the problem of conflict between ideas and reality always exists, as Yu Yingshi keenly pointed out:
In modern parlance, "co-rule" or "co-rule" shows the political subject consciousness of scholars; although they accept the fact that "the source of power is in the king", they do not hesitate to put the great task of "ruling the world" directly on themselves. In this sense, "tongzhi" or "co-governance" is obviously the embodiment of the spirit of "taking the world as one's own responsibility" in terms of "governing the tao". ...... It was the scholars and masters of the Song Dynasty who actively advocated "tongzhi" or "co-rule", not imperial power. ...... But in general, the various voices of the imperial power of the Song Dynasty against the scholars' self-imposed political subjects showed the grace of tolerance. 18
Yu Yingshi's exposition aims to commend the invaluable spirit of the Song Dynasty scholars. However, we can still find that the problems in it are already very serious: in a society with an imperial system, how can the orderly operation of the political order be guaranteed only by relying on the spiritual advocacy of Confucian scholars and doctors? To what extent can the high spirit and ideals of the literati and doctors, and their enthusiasm and enterprising spirit in participating in politics, be freed from the party's intention to fight against others? To what extent can it be long protected from the strong intervention of the imperial power? In fact, not only was Yu Yingshi extremely dissatisfied with the "depression" after the Song Dynasty.19, but also the Ming, Qing, and Yi Dynasties brought about a rapid change in the political atmosphere. For the latter, as Philip A. Kuhn's research reveals, in late imperial China, if the ruling authorities failed to establish a more perfect and powerful system to form sufficient "political control" to impose the necessary checks on the behavior of all political participants, then the increasingly extensive political participation and competition of scholars and doctors was not only difficult to form a modern civil society, but also often degenerated into a vicious trap of "partisan strife". If political control cannot form a balanced structure with political participation and political competition, and only allows the natural expansion and development of the latter two, the formation of the "modern state" will inevitably twist and turn. 20
In any case, Huang Zongxi changed the traditional Confucian ontological system from "one person" to "tianxia" by inheriting and developing the "group worker" imagination that came from the political participation spirit of "co-governance" of scholars and doctors since the Song Dynasty. This "change" with a hint of modernity is, as Charles Taylor argues, not the kind of "breaking" that modern people have imagined, but an attempt to re-imagine politics, society, family, and the individual in another, more "secular" way. 21 Among them, Huang Zongxi explicitly criticizes the ontological imagination of the traditional Confucian family (including the family) and the political isomorphism of the state. This imagination was later used in a more centralized political environment to reinforce the unity of loyalty and filial piety. Using the Book of Filial Piety as a stereotype is to demand absolute loyalty to the king by the standard of filial piety. Since filial piety has a natural physical basis, this reinforcement requirement naturally constitutes a reliable guarantee of the stability and order of the imperial state. On the contrary, Huang Zongxi believes that "the father of the son" and the "subject of the king" should be very different (see "Original Minister"), and in response to a possible question of "subject and son at the same time", Huang Zongxi categorically rejected it with "non-also" and made the following response:
Father and son are one, and the son is divided into fathers. Therefore, although the filial piety is different, it can get closer to its qi day by day, and it is not unreasonable for a long time; the son of filial piety, after the separation, is far away day by day, and the qi is not similar over time. The name of the king, from the world and the one who has it. I have no responsibility under the heavens, then I am a passerby. If you are born out of the king, if you do not take the world as a matter, then the servants and concubines of the king are also concubines; if you do things under the world, then the master and friend of the king are also. Husbands are called ministers, their names are constantly changing, and husbands and sons are immutable. ("The Original Minister")
The basis and basis of filial piety lies in the continuity of the "body" and the connection between "qi", which is the argument for the naturalness and ontology of filial piety. However, this is not the case with the way of kings and subjects, "those who have from the world", whether kings or subjects, they can be established for the purpose of "the world", not the natural "body" and the "qi" of the body. The relationship between father and son is innate and immutable, and the relationship between monarch and subject is only a common responsibility and responsibility agreement in the acquired social group, and its "aspiration" lies in the world, otherwise it is a "passerby".
There seems to be some meaning in modern society of demarcation between the public and private spheres. As Taylor's research shows, the modern family and its emotional world since the 18th century have retreated to the realm of private intimacy, manifested in all aspects of life, such as the fact that houses were also built with increasing concern for the privacy of family members. 22 The moral order of modernity does not have the consistency of the "laws of nature" of the past because "this component is now about our human characteristics, not about touching God or the characteristics of the universe, and is not about the absence of a hypothesis at the ontological level"23. Huang Zongxi even accused the kings of later generations of "forbidding people to snoop in the name of the empty name of the father like the heavens" ("The Original King") 24. Therefore, some researchers have pointed out that Huang Zongxi actually "recognizes the limitations of family ethics and recognizes the unnatural union of society", so that the state of governance that Huang Zongxi expected will actually even "go in a different direction from Confucius and Meng". 25 However, unlike Taylor's "modernity imagination", Huang Zongxi's institutional imagination does not appear in the public sphere independent of national politics. Although there is an institutional construction of "public discussion",26 this is not enough to constitute a modern public sphere imagination like "public society" or "civil society", because it does not have a space independent of the political structure, which is "a suprapolitic, secular, meta-issue space". 22
In fact, Huang Zongxi's vision of "rule by the masses" is not limited to those who have a position of power, but also tries to encompass the entire Confucian intellectual elite, because "rule to the world" is their common responsibility. We know that the Confucian tradition has always attached great importance to the virtuous, and for the folk intellectual elite who have "virtue and no place", Confucianism has given it a social and political responsibility under the premise of not exceeding the norms and the law. Huang Zongxi is no exception, and he also uses systems such as "schools" to ensure that these people participate in the politics of the whole society, especially the grass-roots level, within their duties, so as to "jointly drag the world's big wood". 27
Knowing this, of course, it is no wonder that 20 years after the completion of "Ming Yi To Be Visited", Huang Zongxi expressed deep disappointment in the actual pattern and operation of Qing Dynasty politics. 28 This is because although Kangxi almost achieved true diligence, it was completely contrary to the political picture of "mass workers" that Huang Zongxi appealed to and pursued, and gradually drifted away, and it was impossible to talk about the "rule of law" or even "rule of the world" based on "public world". Huang Zongxi, who was eager to change the pattern of the old dynastic system, could not sigh and be disappointed when he saw that the fortunes of the new dynasty were like this?
epilogue
Starting from the two keywords of "governing people" and "governing the law" in the "Ming Yi To Be Visited", the above explores the relationship between the system and people (for the politicians) in the imagination of the Huang Zongxi system, and in turn re-cleanses the relevant exposition ideas from three aspects.
The first is Huang Zongxi's criticism of "there is no rule of law" instead of the dispute between "rule of man" and "rule of law", but an argument that "law" has a more important and more fundamental role than "people" in any social polity, so political improvement should first start from the reform of "law", and a good "law" ("law of the first king") must be based on the principle of "public world". Therefore, Huang Zongxi is pointing to the change of law, not the rule of law.
Second, the criticism of the "Law of the Patriarchs" is an important addition to the first point mentioned above. Huang Zongxi believes that the "laws" of the dynasties "below three generations" are based on the principle of "private world". Therefore, the "law of the patriarchs" is not enough to be the foundation and supreme principle of good governance. The "law of the ancestors" is often also an "illegal law" and is not enough to "rule"; On the contrary, using the name of the "Law of the Ancestors" to turn political enemies against each other will only further corrupt the function of the "Law of the Ancestors."
Finally, the new pattern of political rule imagined by Huang Zongxi was a "mass worker" up and down the monarchy. He explicitly divided the monarch from the father and the son, the former representing the acquired covenant for the purpose of "the world", while the latter representing the natural relationship of innate blood. Thus, in a sense, Huang Zongxi's political discourse departs from the original classical ontological mode of order thinking, which holds that the hierarchical order of political society has the basis of the natural ontology of the universe. Therefore, Huang Zongxi's political philosophy has the meaning of modern secular social imagination to a certain extent.
exegesis:
1 See Wang Fansen, "Why There Is Chaos and No Rule In Three Generations?—— "Ming Yi to Be Visited", in "The Capillary Role of Power: Thought, Scholarship and Mentality in the Qing Dynasty", Taiwan United Economic Publishing Co., Ltd., 2013, pp. 212-213.
2 The "Ming yi to be visited" quoted in this article is mainly based on the first volume of the Complete Works of Huang Zongxi (Zhejiang Ancient Books Publishing House, 1985), and also refers to Sun Weihua's "Interpretation of the Ming Yi To Be Visited" (Yuelu Book Society, 2011). For the sake of convenience, the following citations of the book in this article are marked only by the title.
3 See Chen Keyan, "The Erudition of Spiritual Attention", Zhejiang Social Sciences, No. 5, 2003, p. 152.
4 Aristotle: Political Science, translated by Wu Shoupeng, The Commercial Press, 1997, p. 199. In fact, in the current practice of socialist rule of law in China, "good law" and "good governance" have been clearly expressed as an indispensable organic combination. See Liming Wang, "The Rule of Law: Good Law and Good Governance", Journal of Chinese University, No. 2, 2015, pp. 114-121.
5 See Yun Geng (Yu Ronggen): "A Re-study of Huang Zongxi's Theory of "Governing The Law and Then Governing People", Journal of Legal Studies, No. 3, 1992, pp. 65-68; Yu Ronggen, "A Re-study of Huang Zongxi's Thought on "Governing the Law"", Chongqing Social Science, No. 4, 2006, pp. 88-92.
6 See Deng Xiaonan, The Law of the Ancestors: A Political Brief of the Early Northern Song Dynasty, Life, Reading, and Xinzhi Triptych Bookstore, 2014.
7 See Debraery, Asian Values and Human Rights: From Confucian Communitarianism, translated by Chen Lisheng, Taipei Zhengzhong Bookstore, 2003, pp. 111-112.
8 See Wang Ge, "Imagining a Produced Form of Government: A Reinterpretation of the Opening Argument of Huang Zongxi's "Ming Yi To Be Visited"," Journal of Baoji College of Arts and Sciences (Social Sciences Edition), No. 6, 2020, pp. 53-59.
9 See Xu Sumin, "The Late Ming Dynasty and the Eastern Gradual Study of the West and the Breakthrough of Political Philosophy in the Ming Dynasty to be Visited", Jianghan Forum, No. 12, 2012, pp. 34-41.
Chapter 10 Taiyan once said, "The Dharma, the great name of the system." ...... Therefore, the flow of legalists is like the so-called politicians in the West, and they are not just glued to the criminal law. (Zhang Binglin: "Loushu Shangmartin No. 35", quoted from Zhang Binglin and Xu Fu's notes: "Detailed Notes on the Book of Lou", Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 2000, p. 566) Zhang Taiyan's Definition of the Western Style of "Law" here is completely valid for huang Zongxi's "Law"; But for the pre-Qin Fa, I am afraid that there is still a slight difference.
11 See Yang Liansheng, Schedule of Work and Rest in Imperial China, in Exploring the Micro of National History, Nova Press, 2005, pp. 48-49.
12 For a discussion of issues related to this in the Confucian political thought tradition, see Li Minghui, Political Thought from a Confucian Perspective, Peking University Press, 2005, pp. 72-87, 109-119.
13 See Xiong Shili: Answering Mu Zongsan, in Ten Li Yu Ji, vol. 3, The Complete Works of Xiong Shili, vol. 4, Hubei Education Publishing House, 2001, pp. 395-407.
14 See Yu Yingshi, The Theory and Political Culture of Song Ming, Guangxi Normal University Press, 2006, pp. 10-60.
15 The same is true in the Western classical tradition, such as the division of labor between the city-states in Plato's "Republic", which is an ontological structure based on nature and the body.
16 Huang Zongxi: "Preface to the Case of Ming Confucianism" (original preface), in Chen Naiqian, ed., The Collected Works of Huang Lizhou, Zhonghua Bookstore, 2009, p. 379. Huang Zongxi has written two "prefaces" to the "Ming Confucianism Case", the original text of which only appears in the "original preface" composed by his sickbed dictation to his son Huang Baijia, but is often mistakenly quoted by scholars as "what is done is the ontology", which has caused some misunderstandings. It is true that compared with Yang Ming's disciples, Huang Zongxi's thought showed a tendency to dilute the mind body and emphasize work, but he did not deny the fundamental proposition of "mind is reason", so his thoughts are still on the extension line of Yang Ming Houxue (see Sun Baoshan: "Huang Zongxi's Inheritance and Adjustment of Yang Mingxue", Zhongzhou Academic Journal, No. 4, 2012, pp. 128-133). At the same time, the "original order" is obviously more critical, which may be related to the life situation of "major illness and several revolutions" at that time. Therefore, when the "preamble" was finally revised, Huang Zongxi deleted this sentence, perhaps in consideration of the possible misunderstanding.
17 For example, Xu Sumin holds the latter view, see his "Late Ming Dynasty Western Learning and the Breakthrough of Political Philosophy in the Ming Dynasty", Jianghan Forum, No. 12, 2012, pp. 34-41.
18 Yu Yingshi, The Historical World of Zhu Xi: A Study of the Politics and Culture of the Song Dynasty Scholars, Life, Reading, and Xinzhi Sanlian Bookstore, 2011, p. 218; p. 228; pp. 228-229.
19 See Yu Yingshi, The Historical World of Zhu Xi: A Study of the Politics and Culture of the Song Dynasty Scholars, pp. 218-228; p. 229.
20 See Kong Feili, The Origin of the Modern Chinese State, translated by Chen Jian and Chen Zhihong, Life, Reading, and Xinzhi Triptych Bookstore, 2013, pp. 10-16, 44-49.
21 See Charles Taylor, Imagining Modern Society, translated by Lin Manhong, Translated by Lin Lin Press, 2014, pp. 7-9.
22 See Charles Taylor, The Imagination of Modern Society, p. 92; pp. 73-88.
23 Charles Taylor, The Imagination of Modern Society, pp. 7-8.
24 Shi Yuankang criticized Huang Zongxi for still fully adhering to the concept of "the unity of the family and the country" on the basis of "comparing himself to his father and imitating it like heaven" ("Yuanjun"), and even deduced that Huang Zongxi basically "regarded the monarch as the parent of the people", which was obviously disregarding the actual discourse context of Huang Zongxi's text, and arbitrarily taking it out of context (see Shi Yuankang: The Political Concept Revealed by "Ming Yi to Be Visited", in "From Chinese Culture to Modernity: Exemplary Transfer"). Life, Reading, and New Knowledge Triptych Bookstore, 2000, pp. 318-320).
25 See Jian Liangru, "Huang Zongxi's Public and Private Views on Ming Yi to Be Visited: A Comparison with Rousseau's Theory of the Social Contract," Journal of Chinese Literature and Philosophy, No. 27, 2005, pp. 239-240.
26 See Peng Guoxiang, "The Construction of a Deliberative Society: The True Essence of Huang Zongxi's Democratic Thought: The Transformation from "Yuan jun" to "School"", in Wu Guang, ed., "From Minben to Democracy: Proceedings of the International Symposium on Huang Zongxi's Minben Thought", Zhejiang Ancient Books Publishing House, 2006, pp. 157-172.
27 For the relationship between Huang Zongxi's imaginary "school" system and grassroots politics and the indoctrination of the common people, see Wang Ge, "Three Forms of Indoctrination of the Common people in Wang Xue", in Zhou Xiaohong and Xie Shuguang, "China Studies", No. 2, 2019, Social Sciences Academic Press, 2019, pp. 195-206. At the same time, the metaphors of "drag woodworkers" and "mass workers" themselves suggest that Huang Zongxi's imagination of political operations has secularized to a certain extent.
28 See Wang Fansen, "The Twelve Fortunes in the Inscription of Ming Yi to be Visited", Proceedings of the Institute of History and Linguistics of the Academia Sinica, 2013, 84, 3rd, pp. 527-555.
About author:Ge Wang, Department of Philosophy, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics.
Philosophical Dynamics, No. 9, 2021.
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