朱子諱言計功利重修己，陳亮反之以成物。朱、陳「義利之辯」之焦點為計功利是否合「義」，其實質是由二者對儒家心性學說架構的內聖之道與事功的外王之道偏重所產生的張力。船山重新構建了理欲觀，重視對心性之學的重建，從深層次化解朱、陳義利二元對立模式；船山直言求利，成己以成物，解構了朱陳義利觀對立之焦點問題。究其根本，朱子、陳亮的義利之辯可歸約為古今之辨：陳亮「守舊」，朱子「求新」，二者均有其不足。船山義利觀兼顧時代意之「新」與以孔孟為代表的先秦儒家內聖外王之「舊」並重之意蘊，在完成對孔孟核心精神回溯的同時，成功地構建其時代話語體系，真正做到了義利並重，其義利觀在內容與形式上均為後世之學人開闢了一條新的理路。

ZhuXi didn’t care much about Profit and valued interior self-cultivation whereas Cheng Liang paid more attention on Profit and advocated exterior achievements. The focus of their debate between Righteousness (Yi) and Profit (Li) lies in whether the Profit’s acquired righteously, while the essence of which is their different bias on internal virtue or external exploits. Wang Chuans han aired his new opinion on Heavenly Principle and Personal Desires, trying to resolve the contradiction between Zhuxi and Cheng Liang by proposing personal interests’ satisfaction firstly and then the whole nation’s. As a matter of fact, ZhuXi prefer Neo-Confucianism while ChengLiang insist Confucianism, both of them have their shortages. Wang Chuan shan combined these two theories. He backtracked to Pre-Qin Confucianism which highlights both moral character within and political achievements outside to establish his own theory under the background of Neo-Confucianism.