忠、信在先秦儒家典籍文獻中非家庭倫理道德，而是社會上人際往來的行為準則。稍早，它是士君子立身行道的行為準則；其後，隨著士君子由修身而治民，內聖而外王，這種準則亦外擴而為蒞政治民的君德，或為官事上的臣操。至《荀子》，一本尊君的觀點，以「忠」為敬順的臣操，卻力求君臣關係的圓滿和諧，孔子以來作為君德之「忠」義逐漸成為過去，「忠」終確定為臣道。各種紛歧的「忠信」義涵，我们可以從傳世儒典《論語》、《孝經》、《孟子》、《禮記》，以及郭店出土多種儒家文獻若〈忠信之道〉、〈六德〉、〈魯穆公問子思〉、〈語叢一〉中，清楚看到這樣的狀況。

Loyalty and honesty in the pre-Chin Confucian documents were not domestic ethic moralities, but the behavioral principles for the interaction of human relationships in society. Earlier, they were the behavioral principles of government officials and gentlemen, the original virtues of self-cultivation. They developed from self-cultivation to the administration of people, from inner cultivation to outer practice, and were broadened to include the kingly virtues for administering political matters, or the official virtues for the administration of government. The Xunzi, fundamentally exalting the position of the king, considers “loyalty” as the very requirement of the subjects to show obedience. Naturally though “loyalty” also means the insistence on necessary admonition to distinguish right from wrong, it simultaneously requires the establishment of harmony between the king and his subjects. As a result, the “loyalty” as the kingly virtue established since Confucius was gradually growing out of date, and “loyalty” was eventually defined as the guiding principle of the subjects. All the divergent meanings of “loyalty” and “honesty” are clearly discernible in such Confucian books as Lunyu (Confucian Analects), Xiaojing (Book of Filial Piety), Mencius, and Liji (Records of Rites), and quite a few Confucian documents excavated at Kuodian.