His Neo-Confucianist views were influential at court and together with his colleague Wei Liaoweng he was instrumental in making Neo-Confucianism the dominant political philosophy of his time.

[4][5] Zhen was widely regarded among his peers as the successor to Zhu Xi's teaching, and was able to overturn the ban on the Cheng-Zhu school implemented during Han's premiership.

Shi Miyuan, then the prime minister, saw Zhen as a potential threat to his political monopoly and removed him from the imperial court.

[1][2] His works continued to be influential long after his death; more than a century later, Song Lian was recommending Zhan's work to the Hongwu Emperor, the first of the Ming dynasty, who was so impressed that he had the text of Zhan's Expanded Meaning of the Great Learning copied onto the walls of his palace so he could review it daily.

Taking the form of a selection of short aphorisms and instructions, it was a popular text in schools for many years, though it fell out of favour after Western pedagogical methods were introduced to China.