Gu Yanwu’s Mixed Model and the Problem of Two Despotisms

Based on a close reading of Gu Yanwu’s masterpiece of statecraft reform thought, Record of Daily Learning, this article maps out Gu’s attempt to mix two rival “constitutional” systems, the centralized junxian system and devolutionary fengjian model, so as to reorder the late imperial polity. Tapping both Confucian and Legalist streams of reformist political discourse, Gu devised a “mixed constitution” that would solve the basic problems he saw exposed by the fall of the Ming Dynasty – local despotism of predatory elites and centralized despotism of autocratic emperors. Restoring Gu’s ideas to their early Qing context and examining the intellectual sources upon which he drew allows for a clearer picture of his carefully balanced plan for devolutionary centralism that he hoped would ensure both good local governance as well as a strong central state.