本文探討定遠齋舊藏劉宗周、文震孟五封書信的思想史意義。全文分作五節，前 三節釋文，並考訂書信年代及收信人的問題。筆者認為這五封書信都是寫給劉、文的一位同 志王元翰（字伯舉，一五六五－一六三三）的，五封信的年代當在崇禎二年年底到五年六月 之間。信的內容主要談的是王元翰復職之事。王元翰與劉、文兩人同是東林黨人，在天啟一 朝，同受以魏忠賢為主的閹黨之迫害，削職為民。朱由檢上臺，清算閹黨之後，東林黨人紛 紛獲得起用。但王元翰因個性激烈，不得環召，所以轉求助昔日同志。劉宗同、文震孟回信 ，表示他們已盡力，但毫無辦法，信中也透露了他們對時局非常悲觀。 　　劉、文的回信雖為朋友復職而寫，但信的內涵卻牽涉到明末最大的一場冤獄－袁崇煥被 枉殺，而袁案又牽涉到明末政局鬥爭的主線索－東林黨與閹黨的長期鬥爭。崇禎二年年底到 三年之間，東林黨與閹黨的勢力有明顯的起伏，朱由檢開始懷疑東林黨人的忠貞，轉而重用 一些自命孤立、事實上是逢君之惡的大臣。東林黨人面臨突然而來的政治事件，束手無策， 心境極為消沉。五封書信的主人翁為劉宗周、文震孟、王元翰，主要的相關者有袁崇煥、王 永光、錢龍錫、黃道周等人，他們都是崇禎朝早期的重要人物，他門情感及仕途上的波折恰 好反映了一代的思潮。

　　　　　This essay is going to study on the significance of the five letters written by Liou Chuang-Chou (1578-1645) and Wen Chen-Meng (1574-1636) collected by Dingyuanzhai. The first three parts are the explication of the texts, the textual research on the dates of writing and questions on the letter-receiver. We believe that all of these letters were to one of Liou and Wen's comrade Wang Yuan-Han (1565-1633), and the dates should be during the end of the second year and the June of the fifth year under the reign of Chu-Chen (1628-1644). The major content was about Wang's return to his former official position. Wand, Liou and Wen were members of the Tong-Lin Party. In the reign of Tien-ch'i, They were persecuted by the Euuch Party led by Wei Chuang-Hsien and conscequently lost their official positions. After Chu Yu-Chien purged eunchs out, members of the Tong-Lin Party were back to their poitions. However, Wang was excluded for his radical personality, and so he wrote to his former comrades to ask for help. Liou and Wen replied that they had done their best but in vain, and they took a quite pessimisstic view of the whole political environment. Nevertheless, although the apparent content of Liou's and Wen's letters was concerning their friend, the implicit significance was associated with the major miscarriage of justice at the end of the Ming Dynasty-Yuan Ch'ung Hwan was put to death unjustly, and this case was also connected to the main clue of the political opposition during the same period-the long-term struggle between the Tong-Lin Party and The Eunch Party. During the second and the third year of Chung-Chen's reign, the control of power shifted between the two Parties, Chu Yu-Chien started to suspect the loyalty of members in the Tong-Lin Party, and then assigned important positions to some couriters who believed themselves independent from political parties but in fact were chance-takers subjected to the emperor's will. Members of the Tong-Lin Party were helpless and depressed. The protagonists of these five letters were important figures in the early years of Chung-Chen's reign; their sufferrings in the affections and political struggles had precisely reflected the intellectual trend of thoughts in this period.