本文探討在先秦文獻中，「誠」字用例概念意涵的演變、暨在政治思想的發展上之意義。本文的分析試圖釐清，在戰國時代不同的文獻之間，其「誠」概念演變的幾個特色，其要點如下。春秋時代以前的文獻中，幾乎沒有概念化的「誠」字的例子。在〈禮記〉的〈檀弓〉、〈曲禮〉等篇章的用例中，「誠」字主要係針對「鬼神」的「虔誠」 ;在其他的例子裡，則有延伸到在祭祀儀禮中、或「齋戒」時的「虔誠」之意。到了〈孟子>，「誠」字開始與 「善」字相結合，用來描述統治者和人民之間的影響關係。相對地，在〈莊子〉中，「誠」 字則在批評儒家的價值概念，即「仁義」和「禮」的脈絡下出現，<莊子〉主張，「誠」 係指一種「真心」的意思，而此「真心」乃是屬於「天地」的。到了戰國末年所編輯的〈呂氏春秋〉中，基於「相類相應」的思維模式，以及其「誠」與「精」概念相結合，而提倡透過「非語言」的意念傳達(即「精」和「精」之間的互應)。具體而言，有「誠心」的統治者之「精」會引起被統治者的正面反應，而能夠由此不靠法令等語言的手段贏得人民的服從。如此，透過戰國時代的概念發展，由〈呂氏春秋〉中的「誠」和「精」概念之結合，「誠」概念在其「養生→與天地合一→非語言的統治」的理論架構中發揮其思想特色。

The aim of this paper is to elucidate a characteristic aspect of early Chinese political thought:The formation of a theory of "non-verbal rule."Ihave tried to explain it by tracing the evolutionary process of the term cheng誠(sincerity),which functioned as the key concept in its theorization, and by delineating its conceptual structure among major concepts that appear along with the term cheng in the Warring States texts. My observations can be divided into four points as follows.First,in its presumably earliest use, the term cheng appears to denote piety in funeral rites and ceremonies for ancestral worship. However, in the majority of its early usages, it is an adverb, meaning "really" or "truly."Second, in Mencius, the term cheng appears as a moral value. Yet,strangely,itis not combined with other major Confucian values such as ren,yi,li,etc. Instead, it appears in strong connection with the terms shan(good-ness)andthe phrase "dongren"(to move others),in which the term implies a kind of miraculous transformative power leading people to virtue.Third, iz zhuangzi, cheng appears as an important moral value, meaning the genuineness of one's mind and natural providence. Here,the effect of the term cheng is associated with the providential power of Heaven and Earth.And fourth, in liishi chunqiu,the term cheng, in conjunction with the term jing, appears as an indispensable component enabling a ruler to prac-tice"non-verbal rule."Here, the paychological state of cheng is taken to cause the transmission of atomic essence between the sender and receiver resulting in the receiver becoming virtuous.