韓愈丈集中，以「原」名篇者五:(原道}、(原性}、(原人)、(原鬼}、(原毀)，朱熹謂其篇目相同，當是一時所作，且皆作於量移江陣以前。近今學者則多謂作加被貶陽山時，然亦有謂作於材|圳，或作於元和八年以後者C究竟何者較為可從?是否一時之作?有無其他可能?前賢所論，多乏攝誼，難以釋疑。因此，本文先蜘陌闢詩文、思想扭絡進行探討，指出五原脈絡相遇，應是一時之作，且應作於自元十九年左右，在京任官時;再就前人不同說法加以檢視，指出其中輝、誤;最能據以考察韓愈道統誼之發展時程，指出(原道}乃韓愈、學問成熟，火力最旺之壯年所為，絕非晚年定論。透過此一探討，不唯可使韓愈創作五原之時間、地點得以釐清，心態、處境得以重現，亦當有助於了解五原在韓愈畢生倡為古文、興儒排佛的甜呈中，且有怎樣的樞紐士也位

In the complete works of Han Yu， there are five article titles started wi th the word “yuan"(which means “tracingthe cause"):“Tracing the Cause of the Tao"，“Tracing the Cause of Human Nature"，“Tracing the Cause of Human Beings"，“Tracing the Cause of Ghosts" ，and “Tracingthe Cause of Slander". Since the titles of these articles are similar， Chu Xi presumed that they should be written at the same time， before Han was remitted and transferred to Jiangling. But most of the scholars nowadays believe that they were written when Han was banished to Yangshan， or when he was in Chenzhou， or after 813 A.D. Which statement is believable? Were they written at the same time? Are there any other possibilities? As a matter offact， former scholars did not have any irrefutable evidence.
Investigating Han's poems， articles and sequence of ideas， this paper first confirms that the five articles were written at the same time， around 803 A.D.， when Han secured an official position in the capital of the coun-try. The second part examines the various arguments of our predecessors and points out their questionable aspects and errors. The third part proves that“Tracing the Cause of the Tao" was not written in Han's remaining years but in his prime of life， according to the developing procedure of Han's Confucian orthodoxy theory.