Huang Zongxi

Huang Zongxi (simplified Chinese: 黄宗羲; traditional Chinese: 黃宗羲; pinyin: Huáng Zōngxī; Wade–Giles: Huang Tsunghsi, September 24, 1610 – August 12, 1695), courtesy name Taichong (太冲), was a Chinese naturalist, political theorist, philosopher, and soldier during the latter part of the Ming dynasty into the early part the Qing.

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.

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