Abstract: Since the practice of reform and opening-up, there has been a shift of the view concerning righteousness and profit and that concerning principle and desire in China’s rural areas: with the turning from traditional morals of regulating profit by means of righteousness and desire by means of principle to new pursuits of combining righteousness with desire and principle with desire and even to giving propriety to profit and desire unfortunately, the trend of the separation of profit from righteousness and desire from principle implies value crisis of treating morals in a utilitarian and even nihilistic way. Therefore, it is essential for the rural governance to achieve new rational understandings of the relationship between righteousness and profit and that between principle and desire by absorbing traditional wisdom and adapting to the new situation of the time.

Key words: farmers&rsquo, enlightenment丨view concerning righteousness and profit丨view concerning principle and desire