摘 要 本文自時代變化著眼，考察中國知識份子歷史，以「世變」為題，討論 中國古代封建制度崩潰到秦漢之際，約公元前550-200 年，政治、社會與文 化的交會。然此時代「知識份子」不限於後世所謂「儒者」，本文亦僅討論 儒家的一部分，其餘則留待日後，冀能形成一部中國古代儒士史。 主體分六節，即儒者的來源、儒者集團形成的現實基礎、儒者集團的精 神內涵、新時代儒者進退的挑戰、高尚其志者短暫的光輝、降志辱身之路。 本文認為，後世儒家可溯源至封建家臣；箇中差異在其形成集團，並從中建 立緊密的第六倫── 師生關係，擺脫封建家臣僅對上級負責的狹窄倫理，以 面對全體人民的使命自任，並以專屬統治貴族的君子人格自勵；孔子尤是促 成轉變的關鍵。 本文以三位指標性人物分別代表三個時代。春秋末年至戰國初為孔子； 這時封建趨於崩潰，部分遺習猶存。到戰國中期，列國競爭，統治者禮遇知 識份子以吸引人材，代表人物是孟軻。荀況則代表戰國晚期，專制王國已然 成形，知識份子淪為國家機器的小零件。全文論述雖不掩飾作者個人文化關 懷，但皆出於可信史料；惟思慮不及之處，仍望學界同好斧正。

Abstract This article examines the history of Chinese intellectuals from the perspective of changes during China’s ancient period from approximately the collapse of the feudal system to Qin and Han dynasties (550-200 BC), with an emphasis on the convergence of politics, society, and culture as the title, “changes in the ancient world”. The “intellectuals” during this period were not all “Confucianists” as we recognize today, and the Confucians involved in this article were also a portion of the Confucianists at that time. The author believes that the Confucianists can trace back to retainers in the feudal period. Unlike feudal retainers, however, the Confucianists formed their own separate group, established the sixth ethical relationship, between teachers and students, of an extremely close nature, and broke the narrow ethical principle by which feudal retainers were responsible only to their superiors. In this way, they could contribute themselves to take the responsibilities for the whole society. Furthermore, the Confucianists used the moral integrity of the gentlemen, monopolized by nobles during the feudal period, to motivate themselves. The key figure to promote this change was Confucius. In this article, the author provides three characteristic figures, namely Confucius, Mencius, and Xunzi to represent three different time periods as the period from the end of the Spring and Autumn period to the beginning of the Warring States period, the middle of the Warring States period, and the late Warring States period respectively.