本文透過戰國秦漢文獻中的「變」、「化」字和「變化」詞的用例，以及支持這些用例之變化觀的分析，試圖構劃先秦思想另一種觀念史的重要脈落。本文的主要論點可分成以下五點：
第一，本文首先整理「變」和「化」字的原型和古意之後，探討在戰國時期的思想文獻中所看到「變」和「化」字的用法。筆者所選的文獻是《論語》、《孟子》、《老子》、「郭店楚簡」和「上博楚簡」，這些文獻中「變」和「化」字都沒有受到特別的注意。
第二，雖然其成書時期沒有定論，但其思想年代大概可以認定為戰國中後期的文獻《黃帝四經》和《莊子》中，筆者觀察到「變」和「化」字本身已變成此三書中的重要議題。同時，還觀察到「變」和「化」二字的意涵之接近與結合，以及「變化」(「化變」概念) 一詞之誕生。
第三，可以代表戰國晚期的思想文獻，即《呂氏春秋》和《荀子》中，筆者也觀察到「變化」概念的進一步發展。《呂氏春秋》的作者始終貫徹地提倡了解和掌握未來「變化」方向之必要。相形之下，在《荀子》的「變化」的用例中，作者所重視的是人類各個性情的「變化」，或者提升。為了達成此個人內在之變化，而提倡「禮義之教化」的重要。
第四，〈易傳〉的「變化」觀基本上是在《呂氏春秋》的「知化」、「觀化」的「變化」觀之上，但「變化」概念成為整個論述的核心概念。
第五，本文最後確認在戰國晚期到秦漢時期的文獻當中，其作者非常重視「變化」觀念的事實。而且，正如司馬談回顧先秦「思想史」的例子中所顯示，漢代的知識份子明顯地將先秦時代思想家對「變化之發現」，視為在思想史上具有重要意義。
據此，本文認為，〈易傳〉的形成反映了戰國後期到秦漢時期，「變化」觀念逐漸受到各家知識份子的重視之後，必然產生的思想結果。

This article aims to delineate the evolutionary development of the concepts of change (bian 變), transformation (hua化), and their compound, bianhua in early Chinese thought. This study sheds light on some interesting aspects of their conceptual evolution. In its use in early Warring States’ texts such as the Analects and newly excavated bamboo texts, the terms bian and hua were used in an ordinary way and do not seem to have a particular value or significance. In contrast, in mid-late Warring States’ texts such as the Huangdi sijing and the Zhuangzi, these terms are regarded as very important to the main arguments describing the order of Heaven and the providential process (i.e. the four seasons, and life and death of all the creatures) on Earth. In late Warring States texts, “change” or “transformation” are sometimes the main objective of certain thinkers. For example, the author(s) of the Lüshi chunqiu proposed an image of the sage as one who can foresee future events in this transformative process in both the natural and the human worlds. On the other hand, in the Xunzi, the term “transformation” is used to emphasize the importance of education for the improvement of human morality. The thought in the commentary part of the Book of Changes (the Yizhuan) seems to follow what we see in the Lüshi chunqiu. From the eve of the Warring States period onward, intellectuals recognized the concept of change and transformation as one of the most important ideas even placing it on a par with the Way or humaneness (ren 仁), concepts indispensable for their philosophical and socio-political discourse. Thus, as is seen in the “Tianxia” chapter of the Zhuangzi and the “Summary of the Six Schools” in the Shiji, the value of Warring States period thought was judged by whether they properly presented ideas of change and transformation.