張載說：「心統性情者也。有形則有體，有性則有情，發於性則見於情，發於情則見於色，以類而應也。」「心統性情」是張載首先提出的命題，但他並未對其展開系統性的論述。直至朱熹出現，才為「心統性情」建構出一套完善的理論。朱熹對張載「心統性情」說極為讚賞。他說：「橫渠心統性情說，乃知此話大有功。」所以，朱熹在張載「心統性情」說的啟發之下，對此一命題展開有系統地論述。他說：「性者理也，性是體，情是用。性情皆出於一心，故心能統之。」明確地以「體用」概念來說明性情間的關係。本文研討重點有二：其一，從張載論述心性相關文獻中，建構其「心統性情」的思想；其二，析論張載與朱熹「心統性情」的內在理路，揭示朱熹確實受到張載思想的啟發，並說明他對「心統性情」說的開展。

Jrang Tzai said, ”Mind dominated character and sentimental. Upon giving birth to the shape, the body would come along, and upon giving birth to the nature, the sentimental would come along. Upon arising on the nature, they could be found out from the sentimental, and upon arising on the sentimental, they could be found out from the appearances. The appearances of these reactions consisted in the same sort they had. The theory of ”mind dominated character and sentimental” was the concept Jrang Tzai proposed firstly, however, he didn't put systematic interpretation(s) on it. Up to the time of Chu Xi that he just formed a set of perfect theory for the theory of ”mind dominated character and sentimental”. Chu Xi terribly praised the theory of ”mind dominated character and sentimental” of Jrang Tzai. He said, ”There is an important contribution in the theory of mind dominated character and sentimental of Heng-Chiu (Jrang Tzai's another name).” Consequently, Chu Xi put systematic interpretations on the concept of ”mind dominated character and sentimental” under the inspiration of Jrang Tzai's theory. He said, ”Character is the principle of the universe. Character is an entity, and sentimental is action. Both nature and sentimental derive from mind. Consequently, mind cam dominate nature and sentimental.” Chu Xi formulated the connections between character and sentimental clearly by using the set of the concept of ”entity and action”. The paper has two points of exploration: one is to structure the concept of ”mind dominated character and sentimental” of Jrang Tzai from the related documents of mind and character he deliberated; another is to analyze the inner logic of ”mind dominated character and sentimental” of Jrang Tzai and Chu Xi, to uncover that Chu Xi's theory was exactly inspired by Jrang Tzai's concept, and to explain that Chu Xi develop the theory of ”mind dominated character and sentimental”.