Huang Zongxi

Huang Zongxi (1610–1695), courtesy name Taichong, style name Nanlei and known as Mr. Lizhou, was a native of Yuyao, Zhejiang, and a thinker and historian of the late Ming and early Qing. In his early years he joined the Fushe society; when Qing troops moved south, he organized the Shizhong camp to resist them. After defeat he lived in seclusion, teaching and writing, and repeatedly declined summons from the Qing court. His representative work, Waiting for the Dawn (Mingyi Daifang Lu), criticizes absolute monarchy in incisive prose that combines political argument with documentary observation; Mingru Xue'an and Song-Yuan Xue'an trace scholarly lineages and inaugurated the history of Chinese academic thought, making him a founder of the Zhejiang Eastern school. Fifteen of his works are collected here, covering politics, Eastern philosophy, folk literature, literary appreciation and military systems, written in a plain, well-grounded style that uses history to discuss governance.