1. "Preserving the principles of nature and destroying human desires" is one of the important views in Zhu Xi's Neo-Confucianism. When later generations judged Neo-Confucianism of the Song and Ming dynasties, they often said that "preserving natural principles and destroying human desires" restricted human freedom. Some people believed that this sentence was intended to emphasize the opposition to greed and to strictly demand oneself in order to achieve higher moral cultivation.

2. In Zhu Xi’s view, “preserving heaven’s principles and destroying human desires” is the essence of Confucianism. It should be pointed out that Zhu Xi’s theoretical work on “preserving reason and eliminating desire” is more about clarifying how to realize “preserving reason and eliminating desire”. The "human desires" Zhu Xi refers to are "private desires", which are not the same concept as people's legitimate desires.

For example, he said, "If you are hungry and want to eat, and you are thirsty and want to drink, how can you have this desire?" He also believes that eating when you are hungry and drinking water when you are thirsty are inevitable. There is no need to "extinguish" desires.

Another example is when he said, "Just as seeing, hearing, speaking, and moving are the same for everyone. Don't listen, hear, speak, and act if it's not polite, that's the law of heaven; if it's not polite, listen, hear, say, or move, that's human desire." It can be seen that what Zhu Xi said "Human desires" refer to those desires that exceed legitimate requirements and violate social norms. Therefore, Zhu Xi is not opposed to human desires in general, but wants people to correctly distinguish between heavenly principles and human desires.

3. As for how to realize "preserving reason and eliminating desire", Zhu Xi's thoughts mainly include three aspects:

1) "Preserving reason and eliminating desire" must first "recognize what is Heaven’s law, that is human desire.” Zhu Xi said: "The principles of heaven and human desires are very small. When it originates, carefully identify which one is the natural principle and which one is the human desire. If you know it is the natural principle, you will know that it is the human desire. Once you know that it is the human desire, then the human desire will not be fulfilled. ." Only by understanding the truth can selfish desires be eliminated, so Zhu Xi talked more about "clear principles and eliminate human desires."

2) "Preserving reason and eliminating desire" is a necessary step for returning to human nature. Zhu Xi's "Great Learning Chapters" believes that the human heart is "empty and not ignorant, with many principles to respond to all things." "But if it is restrained by Qi and obscured by human desires, it will sometimes become faint." "Therefore, scholars should use it to understand everything." What was discovered is then understood, so that it can be restored to its original state." This is the return to human nature, which is the so-called "Ming Ming De". In Zhu Xi's view, "preserving principles and eliminating desires" means to restore the state of "human beings' original nature is good" by clearly distinguishing the differences between natural principles and human desires.

3) "Preserving reason and eliminating desire" is a gradual and natural process. In Zhu Xi's view, it is not easy to explain clearly how to eliminate human desires. "You must be proficient in studying things to achieve this." This means that one must continue to learn in order to distinguish which ones belong to selfish desires and should be controlled.

4. The theoretical flaw of Zhu Xi’s “preserving natural principles and destroying human desires” is that he pits natural principles against human desires. The so-called "if the laws of nature exist, humans will want to perish, and if humans want to prevail, the laws of nature will perish" is too absolute.