Huang Zongxi
1610-1695 · Neo-Confucianism · Known
Huang Zongxi was a Confucian scholar loyal to the Ming dynasty. After it fell he refused to serve the conquerors and wrote an attack on despotism instead. The realm is the host and the ruler only its guest: a throne exists for the people, and one that treats the empire as private property commits theft. All that exists is a single material force, and principle is just its pattern.
Signature
The position Zongxi is most identified with in the Profiler:
- Ground of Being
- leans Immanence
- Authority
- Benevolence
Positions on the 2 axes the sources answer
- Nature of Reality
- leans Unity (25 on a 0–100 scale from Unity to Multiplicity)
- Ground of Being
- leans Immanence (25 on a 0–100 scale from Immanence to Transcendence)
18 of 20 axes are left blank: the sources do not answer them, or Zongxi refused the framing. Nothing is imputed; a blank is not a middling score.
Foundational questions
- Government
- Monarchy / Epistocracy
What is your ideal form of government? - Beginning of Things
- Eternal Cosmos
What is the origin of reality? - Authority
- Benevolence
What is the legitimate source of authority? - Law
- Other
What is the ultimate source of legitimate law? - Role of Emotion
- Virtue to Cultivate
What is the proper role of emotion?