善書雖興盛於宋代，惟其思想早於唐時業已興盛，具體地呈現在小說之中。本文即以唐代小說作為研議文本，嘗試探究勸善書在宋代以前思想的形成歷程及其主要意涵，以期對影響民間信仰最著的善書，有較深入的瞭解與體認。已知其發展是基於人們對良善社會的期盼，故有鼓勵行善、譴責罪行的共識，至晚在漢代結合了善惡報應與司命信仰的概念，建立起教育眾人應樂於行善，遠離罪惡的信仰基礎。其發展雖受佛道兩教的教義影響，擴充了善惡的定義與報應的原理，但在運作時仍準用社會價值判定善惡，否定佛道小說以皈依宗教的與否以為報應施行的準則，呈現出獨立的運作原理與價值判斷。故就唐代勸善故事的本質而言，仍深具社會性格，相符於儒家入世的精神，務求人世的規範持續執行，竟得完成。在察驗唐代勸善主題的小說後，可將唐代視為勸善觀及善書的蘊釀階段，傳承且發揚著傳統思想裏的勸善精神，啟發著後世的善書系統。

Although books of exhortation for good deeds were popular in the Song Dynasty, the thoughts were already expressed concretely in the fictions of the Tang Dynasty. These fictions were used in this study to investigate the formation of thoughts of books of exhortation before the Song Dynasty and their main themes, so that we can have an in depth understanding and perception of these books of exhortation which had a profound influence on the folk religions. We know the development of the thoughts was based on what people would expect of a virtuous society. Therefore, there was a common consensus of encouraging good deeds and upbraiding criminal acts. The union of the concept that one inevitably reaps what he sows and the belief of predestination took place as early as the Han Dynasty. This combined concept formed the principle of belief that taught the general public they must do good deeds and stay away from the evildoing. Although this development was influenced by the doctrines of Buddhism and Taoism that expanded the definitions of virtue and vice and the principle of retribution, in practice, the social value was still used to judge between good and evil. Thus the prerequisite of a religious conversion in these Buddhist and Taoist fictions as the criterion for the act of retribution of virtue and vice was denied and it further manifested the independence of its principle of practice and the judgment of value. Therefore, the essence of books of exhortation for good deeds of the Tang Dynasty had strong social characteristics and was in accordance with the Confucian spirit of confronting the mundane affairs. It further strived for the continuous execution and completion of the standards of human life. After studying the main themes of these fictions of exhortation for good deeds of the Tang Dynasty, we can consider this period as the brewing stage of the concept and books of exhortation for good deeds. It passed on and exalted the spirit of exhortation of the traditional thoughts, thus further inspired the development of the system of books of exhortation for good deeds in later dynasties.