[4] This radical text openly criticises the absolute monarchy prevailing in China, and is interpreted by contemporary authors as a precursor of theories of civil rights and calls for a democratic political system.
[5][6] It would become highly influential during the late Qing’s Wuxu Reform and other attempts at establishing a constitutional monarchy in China.
[7][8] The English edition of Ming Yi Dai Fang Lu, translated by Wm.
[10] A Chinese political science researcher argues that we do not necessarily have to agree with the view that the Waiting for the Dawn "containing spirit of democracy", but we must acknowledge the fact that the book has become an internal trend in foreign democratic thought.
[13] It is also argued that Huang Zongxi's Waiting for the Dawn is not at all comparable to Rousseau's On the Social Contract or Montesquieu's The Spirit of the Laws.