Imperial examination
According to his autobiography, his intellectual gifts were recognized as a child by his uncle. Because of this, from an early age he was sent by his family to study the Confucian classics. Huang described his father as a stern disciplinarian. Huang's father sent the 9-year-old Huang to a traditional Chinese school where he studied Confucian classics, like Four Books and Five Classics, in order to pass the Imperial examination.