本文的研究動機主要從戰國時代儒、道兩家對墨家思想的取捨過程中的一個問題著手。本文觀察到一個現象：戰國時代儒家學者攻擊墨家，重點都在兼愛，從不批評尚賢；而道家學者則相反，攻擊墨家只在尚賢，從不針對兼愛。換言之，對於戰國時代的顯學墨家思想中「兼愛」與「尚賢」兩大主軸觀念，儒家取「尚賢」而排斥「兼愛」，道家則取「兼愛」而攻擊「尚賢」。而且儒、道兩家承接了尚賢與兼愛的觀念之後，為了因應當時政治社會的變化，對這兩個觀念的內容又都進一步的加以推演。本文也同時指出：兼愛與尚賢正好分別顯示了戰國以下中國思想史上的兩個思維方向：一個是由道家啟發的天道自然大格局的思維，這個方向提供了中國進入帝國統一之後的政治統治的思維基礎，強調的是「自然」。另一個則是由孔孟所提出的內在生命的德行問題，做為新興的士階層承擔此一大規模政治社會的道德生命之依據，強調的是「理性」。前者聯結了「兼愛」，而後者則承續了「尚賢」。換言之，墨家的兼愛與尚賢這兩個主要觀念分別被儒、道兩家擷取而加以擴大發揮的結果，正好形成了秦漢之間代表「外在世界」與「內在德行」的兩條思想上發展的進路，使得「自然」與「理性」成為以下中國思想史內容中的兩大主軸。這或許可以解釋為墨家思想消失之後所遺留下來的重要的思想史遺產。

This article focuses on the issue of the two main thoughts of Mohist School (墨家)-＂All-loving＂(兼愛)and ＂Virtue-respect＂(尚賢), which were respectively adopted by Daoist School(道家)and Confucian School (儒家) in the Chinese Warring period. It is found that Daoist School criticized ＂Virtue-respect＂ but not ＂All-loving＂ and, on the contrary, Confucian School criticized only ＂All-loving＂ but not ＂Virtue-respect＂. This observation provides an understanding about the fact that the Daoists accepted the thought of ＂All-loving＂, and the Confucianists accepted the thought of ＂Virtue-respect＂. It is also noticed that the thoughts of both Schools respectively expanded the scopes of these two Mohist-School-originated thoughts. At the end, this article also presents a proposition that the thought of ＂All-loving＂ was transferred into the idea of the universe concerns in the Daoists, while the thought of ＂Virtue-respect＂ was adopted later by the Confucianists in the empires of Qin (秦)and Han(漢)dynasties to establish rational bureaucracy systems of their governments.