本文透過上世紀末出土文獻，重新探討孔孟之間的儒家文化理論。本文將詩－禮－樂三者連結一起，視為同一種文化精神的不同面向的表現。孔孟之間的戰國儒家一方面強調詩－禮－樂的人性根源，一方面強調詩－禮－樂的本質內在於大自然本身，詩－禮－樂有「性與天道」的向度，這個向度恰好是孔子不說的。戰國早期儒者所以著重詩－禮－樂的「性與天道」向度，乃是為因應墨家等諸子對儒家文化的抨擊，更重要的是要回應老子這種思辨型哲人的挑戰。戰國儒家相信人有表現的性格，這種性格和大自然的本性（天道）有種玄秘的同質性，它需要表現出詩－禮－樂這樣的文化。所以文化既不是墨家所批判的那種多餘，也不是老子所批判的那種異化。戰國早期儒家對儒家思想的定位介於孔孟之間，在時間及知識型態上都是如此。

This paper re-discusses the Confucian culture theory in the period between Confucius and Mencius by using the newly excavated documents. This article tries to make a connection among poetry, etiquette, and music, and treat them as three different dimensions of one same culture spirit. The Confucians in the period between Confucius and Mencius emphasized that poetry-etiquette-music has its root in human nature on the one hand, and stressed it has the root in Nature on the other hand. They pointed out Poetry-etiquette-music has the dimension of ＂Nature and Way of Heaven(Xing and Tiandao) ＂ which we can not find in the teachings of Confucius. The reason that Confucians in the early Warring States Period put emphasis on the ＂Xing and Tiandao＂ dimension of poetry-etiquette-music is that they needed to respond to the attacks from Mohist and other schools, especially the challenges from speculative philosophers like Lao-tzu. Those Confucians believed that the human expressive nature has a mystic homogeneity with the nature of cosmos (Tian-dao), and the culture like poetry-etiquette-music is its natural expression. Therefore, culture is neither a superfluous thing nor an alienation as Mohists and Lao-tze criticized. Both in the knowledge spectrum and in the chronological sense, the historical position of Confucians in the early Warring States Period is between Confucius and Mencius.