Rethinking Huang Zhongxi's Treatment of Public and Private: A Comparative Study

This essay reassesses the historical interpretation of the contribution of Huang Zhongxi (黃宗羲, 1610-1695) to the elaboration of the Confucian distinction between public and private. I wish to offer an alternative view of relationship between public and private that emerges from Huang Zhongxi. Drawing extensively on early modern English theorists, Hobbes, Locke and Smith in particular, this comprehensive study highlights the comparison between Huang's treatment of public and private and Western liberal distinction between public and private. The narrative concludes with a reevaluation of basic assumptions or receive wisdom about Huang's thought of public and private.