On Chen Que's Philosophical Thoughts

Chen Que, was one of the greatest thinkers between the end of Ming Dynastyand the beginning of Qing Dynasty. He and Huang Zong Xi were the students of LiuZong Zhou, a prominent scholar of Neo-Confucianism in Ming Dynasty. Chen Quewrote On Da Xue, Speech of blind man and On funeral etc. He followed the traditionsof Confucianism, but he had his own academic thoughts and particular academic style.So he was called abnormal Confucianist by Quan Zu Wang, a historian in QingDynasty. The theory of human nature was an important part of Chen Que'sphilosophic thoughts. He developed the idea of human nature being good and raisedthe opinion of human nature being good and it appearing after being perfect, i.e. hethought original human nature was not perfect and must be consummated by hardwork afterwards, which saved the impractical style of study. On the relationshipbetween justice and desire, Chen Que sharply criticized the Confucianist's asceticism,posed the slogan of human desire being the justice to the public and started theexchange of justice and human desire. On Da Xue, he criticized that this classic wasnot the classic and was skeptical of its authority and soundness. From the origin ofCheng Yi and Zhu Xi's Confucian school, Chen Que's theory almost overturned thecore of it. With the research spirit of not following old customs and the value trend ofpursuing the truth and benefits, Chen Que made contributions to the academy in Mingand Qing Dynasty breaking away from trouble and performing modern time'stransforming to practical trend of thought.