本文以上海博物館藏戰國楚竹書《孔子詩論》中探討「民性」的四簡簡文為闡述對象，涵蓋〈葛覃〉、〈甘棠〉、〈木瓜〉、〈杕杜〉四詩，分別討論了「民性」在精神與現實兩面向上的影響，特別是有關「價值」建立之主觀基礎，以及「物用」與心志情感間的客觀關係。概括而言，《孔子詩論》「民性」論述之實質，和人性論相當，具有補充戰國時期儒家心性之學的思想史意義。它不僅承認基於「民性」的心態和作為，視之為「固然」事實，更由「民性」與禮的本末關係，肯定「民性」為德性之本。然而，《孔子詩論》論述民性及其固然之善的方式，卻是極其特殊的。它所分析的對象既非血氣本能，也非原始而未臻文明的初民意識；它既不關注未發之性，對已發人情的探討，也超出人與其對象間的直接舉措和感受。《詩論》唯以人在自然情況下連帶產生的種種做法、推及而有的其他對象，乃至人所普遍認為任意、私欲性的不善之事，說明人固然之善，從而形成獨特平實且人、物本然一體的人性論述。

This paper discusses the “nature of the people” in The Poetics of Confucius, which is in Shanghai Museum's Chu Bamboo Books from the Warring States Period. Specifically, it looks at this idea as expressed in four short poems in the work: “Getan,” “Gantang,” “Mugua,” and “Didu.” This concept exerts influence both in spirit and in reality, particularly as concerns the subjective ground of the establishment of “values,” as well as the objective relationship between the “use of things” and the feelings of the heart. In brief, “the nature of the people” that is discussed in The Poetics of Confucius is essentially the same as “the human nature,” thus supplementing the Confucian view of the heart and nature of man and enriching the latter from the viewpoint of the history of thought. The Poetics of Confucius not only upholds ideal and practice of man as based on the “nature of the people,” viewing this nature as something unchangeably certain, but also confirms the standpoint that the “nature of the people” is the foundation of human morals, being the alpha and omega of the rites 禮 of man. On the one hand, The Poetics of Confucius with respect of the nature of man has the same basic belief as the theory of the goodness of human nature, but on the other hand, in discussing the goodness of man, The Poetics of Confucius is unique: it does not view as primary the human phenomena that is usually analyzed in the theories of human nature, and similarly does not see the direct responses and feelings between man and his objects as expressions of human nature. On the contrary, it exposes the goodness of human nature from its natural disposition to act in relationships with objects, and even in its unkind affairs that are generally accepted as selfish or as human frailties.