Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 1.pdf/364

Rh custody to Peking in 1626 he introduced his son to, the prominent philosopher of the Wang Yang-ming school. Huang Tsung-hsi became Liu's most devoted disciple and one of the exponents of the Wang Yang-ming philosophy (see under ). Huang Tsun-su was put to death in prison in the summer of that year (1626). Two years later, when the new emperor, Ssŭ-tsung (i.e. ), ascended the throne Huang Tsung-hsi set out for the capital with a long awl in his sleeve and a memorial in his hand to take vengeance on certain officials and to protest against the injustice that had been done to his father. But before he arrived at his destination Wei Chung-hsien died, members of the eunuch clique were punished, and posthumous honors were bestowed on those who had been unjustly put to death. In Peking, however, Huang Tsung-hsi engaged in daring acts of vengeance, and his sense of filial piety aroused the admiration and sympathy of many. During a stay in Nanking in 1630 he became a member of the politico-literary group known as the Fu-shê (see under ).

In deference to a last wish of his father, Huang Tsung-hsi began in 1631 a detailed study of Chinese history, employing the method of punctuating one volume each day. Thus in two years he finished the official chronicles, or "Veritable Records" (實錄), of the first thirteen reigns of the Ming dynasty, as well as the Twenty-one Dynastic Histories. In view of the return to power of the eunuch faction the Fu-shê group issued an anti-corruption circular known as the Manifesto of Nanking (留都防亂揭) of which Huang Tsung-hsi was one of the leading signers. This list of names served later as the basis of list, Huang nan-lu (see under ), of proscribed members of the Tung-lin and Fu-shê parties. During his visits to Nanking in the years 1630-41 Huang Tsung-hsi frequently stayed in the home of Huang Chü-chung (see under ) in whose library, Ch'ien-ch'ing t'ang, he had the privilege of studying. When the news of the fall of Peking reached him in 1644 he and his teacher, Liu Tsung-chou, went to Hangchow to join Hsiung Ju-lin 熊汝霖 in raising volunteer troops for the Ming cause.

Meanwhile the Prince of Fu (see under ) ascended the throne at Nanking and Huang Tsung-hsi was summoned to the new capital. Soon, however, Juan Ta-ch'êng came to power and ordered the arrest of 140 members (or descendants of former members) of the Tunglin and Fu-shê societies, including Huang Tsung-hsi who, according to Liang Ch'i-ch'ao (see under ), took refuge in Japan at this time. But as the evidence for such a journey is based wholly on a poem, entitled 避地賦 Pi-ti fu, "On Taking Refuge", in which Huang merely alludes to certain places in Japan, the proof is hardly conclusive. When Nanking fell to the Manchus in 1645, the forces of Hsiung Ju-lin and Sun Chia-chi 孫嘉積 on the Ch'ien-t'ang river still held out against the invaders, and Huang Tsung-hsi with his two younger brothers and a volunteer force of several hundred men assisted them. Huang met the Prince of Lu (see under ) near Shaohsing and stationed his troops on the river in a camp known as Shih-chung ying 世忠營. He constructed a calendar for this regime, which was promulgated in the region of Chekiang in that year and was called 監國魯元年大統曆 Chien-kuo Lu yüan-nien ta-t'ung li. In 1646 he was made a censor and concurrently a secretary in the Board of War. In the same year the Ming forces were dispersed, the Prince of Lu proceed by sea to Fukien, and Huang Tsung-hsi with five hundred men constructed barricades in the Ssŭ-ming mountains, about a hundred li south of his home. These defenses were later burned and destroyed by the local inhabitants who feared Manchu retaliation. In 1649 the Prince of Lu returned and established his headquarters on the Chusan Islands off the coast of Chekiang where he was joined by Huang Tsung-hsi who was made a vice-president of the Censorate. But as the real authority was in the hands of there was very little that Huang could do to relieve the situation. Moreover, as the Manchu authorities had proclaimed the arrest of all members of families of active Ming loyalists, and as the life of his mother was jeopardized, he decided to abandon political activities and retire to his home. In the epitaph of Huang, composed by, it is stated that in this year he accompanied Fêng Ching-ti 馮京第 to Japan to request military aid; but his connection, if any, with that mission is not clear.

After his retirement in 1649 Huang Tsung-hsi devoted himself wholly to the advancement of learning. For a few months in 1650 he visited at Soochow, and thereafter for some thirty years he lived in or near his native place, except for a trip to Kiangsu in 1660 and 352