「情」本是人生哲學重要範疇,但今人對感性之情的思想討論,直至〈性自命出〉面世,方逐漸受到學界重視,不過,以往的研究又多側重於一人、一書、一學派,本文試圖從思想史角度,選擇《孟子》、《莊子》、〈性自命出〉、《荀子》四部在戰國時,呈現與感情之義內容有關之要籍,對「情」概念獲得長足發展的脈絡與內蘊,進行詮釋與釐析。至於本文選擇以戰國為時代研究範圍,係考察到在孟子之前的春秋先秦,尚情概念還未形成,只有到戰國時期才可發現與情感相關的論述勃興。本文架構首先從字源開始溯源,發現「情」與「性」之意義關係緊密;其次,依序挖掘四部文獻之情論內容並作出歸納,並同時根據文本,推斷其彼此可能關連及其在思想史上的意義價值。
”Emotion” has been one of the important categories in the philosophy for life. But it was not until the discovery of 'Nature Originates from Decree' that contemporary discussion on the thoughts of emotions of sensibility began to receive scholar attention. Most existing studies; however, have laid special emphases on one person, one book, or one school while this research, from a perspective of history of thought, attempts to analyze the thread of thoughts of the well-evolved emotion concept and interpret the implications thereof based on four conspicuous ancient books of the Era of Warring States that presented the contents of emotions, ”Mencius”, ”Zhungzi”, 'Nature Originates from Decree', and ”Xunzi”.Since the existence of emotion concept in the Spring and Autumn Period has yet been found, this exploration is focused on the Era of Warring States, during which numerous expositions of emotions have already been discovered.Tracing to the origins, this paper starts with a research on etymology, and a close relationship between the meanings of ”emotion” and ”nature” is revealed. The contents of expositions of emotions in the four books are then explored and generalized. Possible connections among these contents as well as their significance and values in the history of thought are also deduced on the basis of the original text.