Making Great Achievements and Managing Government Affairs——Study on Chen Liang's Utilitarianism

As an outstanding representative of Eastern Zhejiang School in the Southern Song Dynasty,Chen Liang was dissatisfied with the empty and metaphysical words of the neo-Confucianism,which only concerned with the natural principles and destiny,and put forward his claims on the basis of the facts and real achievements.Chen Liang thought that: as a scholar,he should make a detailed and comprehensive research on the matters so as to get accomplishments;as a governor,he should draw lessons and experiences form people who seized or lost the power,study it for the sake of application,and value its influence;as a virtue man,he should know it clearly in his self-cultivation that virtues lay in the real accomplishments.His utilitarianism had put profound impact on the academy in and after the Southern Song Dynasty.And it has been proved to be the ideological source and spiritual power for the intellectuals during the great transformations in Chinese history.