《太平經》是道教的早期經其中有關善惡報應的問題，《太平經》提出了「承負」說，可說是道教立教的主要依據。在學者討論《太平經》時，亦多不會忽略對承負說的探討，然而仔給考察，則發現真正針對承負說的內涵與價值甚或缺漏詳加討論的並不太多。因此本文一方面回歸原典，詳加闡明承負說的理論內涵，並考察它在立論主要目的──「道德勸善」上所提出的解決之道；另一方面則站在前人研究的基礎上，並藉著與佛教因果說的比較，進一步探討承負說的理論價值及其不足之處，檢討的標準，自然亦在它如何能、或是否能達到其「道德勸善」的目的為主。文中的檢討，後歸納學者種種不同角度的說法之外，亦提出一些個人意見，以就教方家。

Tai Ping Classic (the scripture of the Great Peace, 太平經) is the early stage scripture of Taoist religion, it extracts the theory of Chengfu (undertaking ancestors’ sins and being responsible for later generations, 承負說) to replay the theory of retribution (for sins and reward for merits) expounded form the pre-Qing dynasty and the two Han dynasty. The theory of Chengfu may be called the main and basic argumentation of Taoism. But few articles discuss the content, value and defect of the theory of Chengfu completely and explicitly. This text return to discuss the original scripture one side, besides, to review and value the theory of Chengfu by contrasting with the Karma of Buddhism.