《禮記》、《楚辭》與《左傳》等早期中國經典文獻所表達的靈魂觀，基本上是作為一種「禮儀中的觀念」而存在的。通過把它們表達的靈魂觀還原至其禮儀性的語境中考察，本文發現公元前六世紀的確發生了南北方靈魂觀的碰撞，但此碰撞並未導致余英時所謂的「魂∕魄一元論」向「魂魄二元論」的轉變，靈魂一元論仍然是春秋戰國時期普遍的信仰。當然，此次碰撞並非毫無意義，而是影響深遠。它導致北方的靈魂一元論內容發生了從「魄一元論」向「魂∕魂魄一元論」的轉變。「魂一元論」不僅繼續盛行於南方，而且在北方也開始普遍流行。「魂」在北方的盛行，迫使「魄」的含義發生了從靈魂到形體的巨大轉變。春秋戰國時期普遍流行的靈魂一元論，是《禮記》主張採納廟祭而非墓祭、槨墓而非室墓的主要觀念來源。

The concept of the soul as expressed in the classical works of early China, the Liji 禮記, Chuci 楚辭, and Zuozhuan 左傳, was one that existed in a ritual context. By restoring the concept of the soul presented in these texts to its original ritual context, this study finds that a collision of views of the soul did occur in northern and southern China in the 6th century B.C., but that this collision did not result in the transformation of the prevailing concept from the monistic hun/po 魂/魄 to the dualistic hunpo, as proposed by Yu Ying-shih 余英時 in the 1980s. The monistic concept of the soul was still prevalent during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods. This collision of views, of course, was not without some profound consequences. It transformed the northern monistic conception of the soul from the po soul to the hun/hun-po soul. The idea of the hun soul not only continued to be popular in the south, its influence also began to prevail in the north. This prevalence of hun in the north forced an enormous shift in the meaning of po, with po becoming associated with the body instead of the soul. The prevalence of the monistic conception of the soul during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods was the conceptual basis for performing ancestral sacrifices at the ancestral temple and not the tomb, and burials in nested coffin structures as opposed to chamber burials.