本文透過上世紀末出土文獻，重新探討孔孟之間的儒家文化理論。本文將詩─禮─樂三者連結一起，視為同一種文化精神的不同面向的表現。孔孟之間的戰國儒家一方面強調詩─禮─樂的人性根源，一方面強調詩─禮─樂的本質內在於大自然本身，詩─禮─樂有「性與天道」的向度，這個向度恰好是孔子不說的。戰國早期儒者所以著重詩─禮─樂的「性與天道」向度，乃是為因應墨家等諸子對儒家文化的抨擊，更重要的是要回應老子這種思辨型哲人的挑戰。戰國儒家相信人有表現的性格，這種性格和大自然的本性（天道）有種玄秘的同質性，它需要表現出詩─禮─樂這樣的文化。所以文化既不是墨家所批判的那種多餘，也不是老子所批判的那種異化。戰國早期儒家對儒家思想的定位介於孔孟之間，在時間及知識型態上都是如此。

This paper re-discusses the Confucian culture theory in the period between Confucius and Mencius by using the newly excavated documents. This article tries to make a connection among poetry, etiquette, and music, and treat them as three different dimensions of one same culture spirit. The Confucians in the period between Confucius and Mencius emphasized that poetry-etiquette-music has its root in human nature on the one hand, and stressed it has the root in Nature on the other hand. They pointed out Poetry-etiquette-music has the dimension of “Nature and Way of Heaven（Xing and Tiandao）” which we can not find in the teachings of Confucius. The reason that Confucians in the early Warring States Period put emphasis on the “Xing and Tiandao” dimension of poetry-etiquette-music is that they needed to respond to the attacks from Mohist and other schools, especially the challenges from speculative philosophers like Lao-tzu.Those Confucians believed that the human expressive nature has a mystic homogeneity with the nature of cosmos （Tian-dao）, and the culture like poetry-etiquette-music is its natural expression.Therefore,culture is neither a superfluous thing nor an alienation as Mohists and Lao-tze criticized. Both in the knowledge spectrum and in the chronological sense, the historical position of Confucians in the early Warring States Period is between Confucius and Mencius.