Huang Zongxi's Chronology

Author: Huang Bing (Qing Dynasty)
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2006-06-01
Features: A chronicle of Huang Zongxi, originally titled "Chronicle of Master Liangzhou Huang Zongxi," compiled by Huang Binghou during the Qing Dynasty. Huang Zongxi, styled Tai-chong and styled Nanlei, is also known as Master Liangzhou. He was a native of Yu in Zhejiang. Born in the 38th year of the Wanli era of the Ming Dynasty (1610) and died in the 34th year of the Kangxi era of the Qing Dynasty (1695), he was posthumously honored by his disciples as Wenxiao. He was an outstanding historian and thinker of the late Ming and early Qing periods and an important founder of Qing Dynasty historiography. His father, Huang Zunsu, was an censor during the Tianqi era of the Ming Dynasty and a member of the Donglin Party, who was persecuted by Wei Zhongxian. In the first year of the Chongzhen era (1628), Huang Zongxi traveled to the capital to seek justice, piercing Wei's factional remnants such as Xu Yuanchun with a needle, and his reputation soared at the age of nineteen. When the Qing army advanced south, he and his brother Huang Zongyan raised troops to resist the Qing in the second year of the Shunzhi era (1645), serving as the Left Vice Censor-in-Chief of the Ming Luwang. After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, he retreated to the countryside, immersed himself in the study of history, taught diligently, and wrote extensively for over thirty years, establishing the Zhejiang School, which had a profound influence on Qing Dynasty historiography. In the early Qing Dynasty, when compiling the Ming Dynasty history, they sought his advice. Throughout his life, he wrote over sixty works, totaling more than 1,300 volumes, covering a wide range of topics. Among his most influential works are the Ming Confucian School Chronicle, the Mingyi Difanglu, the Records of the Transitional Court, and the collected essays Nanlei Wen Ding. The autographed chronicles he compiled were destroyed in a fire, both the original and the copy.