《孟子》乃是極富爭議之典籍，從「子」而及「經」，乃是地位的提昇，其中涉及「官學化」與「經典化」兩項過程，前人於唐、宋之際《孟子》升格運動，多有討論，但對於朱熹匯聚聖賢相傳歷史意象，回應宋儒有關孟子爭議問題，卻是缺乏檢討，筆者撮舉《孟子集注》徵引材料，一窺朱熹思索所在，遂能得見在「儒學傳承」與「政治反叛」辨證當中，回歸於心性，以「道統」形塑孔、孟之傳，思索《孟子》經典地位的過程。足證理學並非為政治服務的工具，「內聖」工夫更非「外王」事業的捨離，朱熹吸納諸儒意見，反省儒學之傳，確定《孟子》價值，乃是回應北宋儒學實踐的結果，用心所在，於茲可見。

The Mencius, a disputable canon, promoted from a section of the schools of philosophers (zi) to the classics (jing) through being officialized and canonized. While former scholars have focused on discussing the promotion of the Mencius in the Tang and Song Dynasties, there were, however, few criticisms on the Song savants' arguments about Mencius, which was left by Zhu Xi through the historical notion of ”sagely transmission.” As a result, I will take theＭengzi jizhu (Collected Commentaries of Mencius) as quotation to investigate Zhu Xi's contemplation, which will manifest the dialectic of the spread of Confucianism and political rebellion. Within this investigation, we can speculate about the process of the Mencius being canonized, for Confucius and Mencius' analects which were molded through the succession to the Way (daotong) by reverting to mental character. Zhu Xi confirmed the merit of the Mencius and then used it to prove that the philosophy of principle (lixue) is not the instrument for politics, and philosophers, moreover, work hard for interior sageness which cannot be affected by their exterior achievement, according to imbibing various savants' points of view as well as rethinking the spread of Confucianism. To be sure, this is the meticulous and fruitful result of Zhu Xi's response to the practice of Confucianism in the North Song Dynasty.