一些學者在討論魏晉時期儒家忠君觀念的狀況時，由於很少注意儒家思想在魏晉不同階段的消長變化，因此得出的結論往往失之籠統，有學者甚至認為從魏晉直到唐朝的建立，「孝道」始終凌駕「忠節」。本文沿著兩條線索──即「恢復普遍王權」和「反對普遍王權」之間的互動，以及維護士族利益和加強皇權之間的互動──去考察儒家忠君觀念在魏晉時期的起伏變化。研究結果表明，從東漢末年到西晉，「普遍王權」的觀念確實是在不斷衰落，而且「孝道」在很多情況下確實高於「忠節」。但是在晉室南渡之後，儘管維護士族利益和限制皇權的思想依然強烈，但卻不斷有士人出來提倡忠君，甚至為了皇權的振興不惜犧牲本家族的利益，從而使忠君觀念呈現出有所加強的趨勢。

In studying the Confucian idea of loyalty to the ruler in the Wei-Jin period, some scholars often overlook the changing strength of Con-fucianism over time. Some researchers even argue that, from the Three-Kingdoms period through the founding of the Tang Dynasty, filial piety always took precedence over the notion of loyalty to the ruler. This article traces the vicissitudes of the Confucian concept of loyalty in early medieval China along two lines: the interaction between the ideas for and against restoring universal kingship, and the interaction between the efforts of protecting and weakening the interests of the scholar-official families. This research has discovered that, from late Eastern Han through the end of Western Jin, the idea of universal kingship was indeed declining and in many cases filial piety overshadowed the idea of loyalty to the sovereign. However, after the founding of Eastern Jin, the Confucian idea of loyalty was continually advocated by some scholar officials in spite of concurrent efforts to restrict imperial power.