Life

Chen was born in Lingui, Guangxi, to a family who migrated from Chenzhou in Hunan province in the late Ming dynasty. He was noted for the longest total service and most provincial posts than any other official during the Qing dynasty. In their work Anthology of Qing Statecraft Writings, He Changling and Wei Yuan praised him as an exemplary official, being surpassed only by Gu Yanwu.

Philosophy

Chen considered himself a disciple of Zhu Xi, but condemned various types of intellectual partisanship. His essays were very progressive for his time - in his vigorous advocation of education for people everywhere, he was one of the first philosophers to clearly state the idea that women and non-Chinese tribes could, and should, receive the same education as Han Chinese men.

Together with Gu Yanwu, He Changling, and Wei Yuan (mentioned above) he belongs to the "statecraft school" of the Chinese thought: its proponents advocated accommodation of the local administration to the changing social realities.

生平

雍正元年（1723年）癸卯恩科第一名舉人（解元），同年聯捷進士。改庶吉士，授檢討。雍正四年（1726年），授吏部郎中。雍正七年（1729年），考選浙江道御史，仍兼郎中。雍正十一年（1733年）起外派，至乾隆二十八(1763)年回京，期間歷任甘肅、江西、陝西、湖北、河南、福建、湖南、江蘇等省巡撫，後成為兩廣、兩湖總督、兵部、吏部尚書。乾隆三十二(1767)年官至東閣大學士。乾隆三十四(1769)年多次以病請辭，但被慰留。乾隆三十六(1771)年春病情嚴重，獲准辭職，加太子太傅，食俸如故。乾隆帝命令其孫刑部主事蘭森侍歸，所經處有司在20里內料理護行。6月，乘船到達兗州韓莊，卒於途中。命祀賢良，賜祭葬，諡文恭。

任陝西巡撫期間，興修農田水利，疏濬河流航道，提倡植樹養蠶、農事深耕，均有成效。

陳宏謀墓位于今廣西壯族自治區桂林市臨桂縣四塘鄉。

嘉慶二十五年庚辰恩科狀元陳繼昌系其曾孫。

著作

除政事外，他也是清朝盛世知名之哲學家，將歷代重要的風俗政事文獻整理成五部精簡扼要的參考教本，名為《五種遺規》。其中《教女遺規》他提出當時婦女的教養之道，主張：「天下無不可教之人，亦無可以不教之人，而豈獨遺於女子也？」為中國帝制時期少見主張實行女性教育者。此外，《從政遺規》亦為清朝菁英政治之重要著作。