Study On Chen Liang's Perspective Upon Heroes_

During the Southern Song Dynasty,when people's ideal personalities were continuously sanctified,Chen Liang regarded heroism as an ideal personality,going against the mainstream.In terms of this,Zhu Xi once advised Chen to discipline himself in the spirit of Confucianism.However,Chen did not accept his exhortation.From Chen's perspective,heroism is a personality of benevolence,wisdom and courage,oriented in practice to pursue a positive career.Chen's understanding of Tao and human nature is the root of the orientation in king and achievement.Chen believed that Tao is in the midst of practice,thus making practice indispensable to the master of Tao.Besides,natural desires have their realistic values in real life.In this regard,Chen approves the maintenance of human nature.In spite of his approval,he also observed that people tends to act selfishly.To prevent this,he proposed selflessness so that rational desires can be unified by abstaining human's improper desires.Furthermore,under selflessness,pursuing for achievement is able to be used as a means of contributing to people's welfare,thereby,a unity between justice and interests can be attained.This demonstration justifies the pursuit for achievements.Certainly,the responsibilities of a hero's pursuit fall on the shoulder of himself.Chen regarded benevolence,wisdom,courage and practice as the four major features of heroic personality.Among those features,courage is the perquisite of this personality,manifesting itself in the untrammeled choices made by a hero while wisdom makes its reflection in the capability of problem-solving.As for benevolence,which is the fundamental quality for a hero,emphasized in selflessness and for practice,which is a measure to carry out the virtues mentioned above.It's conspicuous that practice is characterized in the pursuit for achievements while equipping itself with the function of identifying a hero.Compared to Confucianism,heroism focuses more on wisdom and practice,thus highlighting the respect of kingliness without.There is no doubt that Chen's approval of heroism had corrected the trend of Confucian mind's sageliness within to some extent.It's also clear to see that Chen's heroism is guided over the value of selflessness.