迄今為止，學界仍未能為孟子的修養論提供一個完整的圖像。依筆者之見，這個困難之所以產生主要的原因有兩個。其一，迄今為止，學術界似乎並未能為「修養論」之概念提出一個清楚的定義。其二，人們在討論「修養論」的內在義理時雖然也注意到其人性論之基礎，但人們通常沒有注意到孟子人性論中大體與小體的地位差異及其特殊關係對於孟子修養論的展開方式有決定性的影響。為了替孟子修養論的完整圖像之提供作好必要的準備，本文嘗試著為「修養論」之概念提供一個的定義，並且嘗試著去顯示孟子修養論的展開方式與其孟子人性論的內在結構之緊密關聯。這兩個嘗試帶來了兩個成果:第一，解決了有關文獻能否納入孟子修養論之爭執，說明了有關爭執所以會產生的原因;第二，首次依一種系統的方式去將孟子修養論的各個論題與概念組織起來。

　　　　　Studies of the history of Chinese philosophy have failed to offer a complete account of Mencian moral self-cultivation for two reasons: (1) There has been no clear definition of "theory of Confucian moral elf-cultivation" (2) The decisive influence of Mencius's theory of human nature on his theory of moral self-cultivation has not yet been correctly understood. The present article addresses both these needs. It establishes the relevance of several controversial passages to the problem of self-cultivation, explains the reasons for those controversies, and organize the topics and concepts of Mencius's theory of moral self-cultivation for the first time into a coherent system.