| dc.description.abstract | This research is based on Huang Wan（黃綰） as the theme of study, which aims to understand his influence over the political and the academic situations through investigating what had happened to him, what he had done, and how he reacted. Yinxu（蔭敘） system allows the offsprings of particular officers to obtain civil posts directly. This research also provides an observation of the actual operations of Yinxu system in the middle period of Ming Dynasty through the examination of Huang Wan’s political course.
Instead of obtaining an civil post through taking the Imperial Examination, Huang Wan obtained the post through the Yinxu system. However, he was not given an important or a high one. He took over “Great Ritual Controversy” in 3rd of Jiajing（嘉靖）. In the event, Shi Zong （世宗） attempted to give his father the title of emperor which he had never served as. Huang Wan approved Shi Zong’s position and submitted a report to the thorne to assert his idea after Zhang Cong（張璁） and Gui E（桂萼） submitted theirs. As well as other officials who approved Shi Zong in “Great Ritual Conversy, ” Huang Wan was appreciated by the emperor and got promotion rapidly. He was promoted to Assitant Minister of Nanjing Ministry of Rites from an entry level secretary in Supervisory Institution, and finally to the Minister of Ministry of Rites in a short time. Despite being a Yinguan（蔭官）, a person who got his post because one of his forefathers had been a senior official, Huang Wan had become a member of Hanlin Academy which usually didn’t accept a Yinguan. This made him a very rare case in Ming Dynasty. The fact that Huang Wan held the post of the Assitant Minister in Ministry of Rites was not questioned because he possessed profound knowledge.
Huang Wan’s homeland is at Taizhou（台州） Prefecture, the east of Zhejiang（浙江）. Zhu Xi Conusianism（朱子學） is the mainstream school in this region, so Huang Wan was influenced by it in his early years. He made friends with Wang Shouren（王守仁）, the master of Neo-Confucian School of Mind in 5th of Zhengde（正德） and submitted reports to the throne to defend Wang Shouren many times. In 1st of Jiajing, Huang Wan became Wang’s student because he admired Wang’s Zhi-Liang-Zhi（致良知） doctrine. In Huang Wan’s later years, he was dissatisfied with the empty trend in the School of Mind of Neo-Confucian, and he criticized scholars of Song Dynasty, Wang Ji（王畿） and even Wang Shouren. Huang Wan developed his own theory, tried to fix the empty trend in the School of Mind, made it more practical and plain.
Huang Wan had been a controversial figure in history. He emphasized the practical knowledge, especially in the topics of water management, justice system, taxes system and education system. However, from his forties, he was eager for pursuing power. This concept was criticized as wavering in determination and Huang Wan was thought to be a sly figure by some historians. At last, this research aims to construct a fair place in history by examining his concepts of academic, social relations and political performance, as well as the actual operation of Yinxu system in the middle period of Ming Dynasty. | en_US |