Huang Zongxi - Biography

Biography

Huang was a native of Yuyao in Zhejiang province. He was the son of Huang Zunsu, an official of the Ming court and an adherent of the Donglin Movement who died in prison after opposing the powerful eunuch Wei Zhongxian.

Huang Zongxi became a licentiate in 1623 at the age of 14, and in the same year followed his father to Beijing, where his father held a post as a censor. The struggle between the Donglin faction and the eunuchs was reaching a climax during this period, and as a result the elder Huang was dismissed from office in 1625 and the two returned home. Soon after, Huang Zongxi was married to Ye Baolin. When Huang Zunsu was traveling in custody to Beijing in 1626, he introduced his son to Liu Zongzhou, a noted philosopher of the Wang Yangming school. Huang Zongxi then became a devoted disciple of Liu and a proponent of the Wang Yangming school.

Huang Zunsu was put to death in 1626. When a new emperor ascended the throne two years later, Huang Zongxi set off for the capital to protest the execution of his father. Even before he arrived, however, the eunuch faction was destroyed and those who died under it were bestowed with honors. Still, Huang engaged in daring acts of vengeance in the capital, gaining the respect of many. In accordance with his father's last wishes, he in 1631 devoted himself to studying Chinese history. In 1633, Huang completed the Shilu, or "Veritable Records" of the first thirteen reigns of the Ming Dynasty.

After the beginning of the Qing Dynasty and the rise to power of Ruan Dacheng, arrest warrants were issued for descendants of Donglin members, including Huang Zongxi. Liang Qichao later speculated that Huang avoided capture by fleeing to Japan during this period, but the evidence consists of only one poem. Huang assisted Ming loyalist forces until his retirement in 1649. Thereafter, Huang devoted himself to study and lived near his native home for much of the rest of his life. He died in 1695, at the age of 86.