本文認為,《性自命出》關于"心"的思想不是心性論而是心術論,代表了前心性論時期儒家對心的看法,同時又為后世的心性論奠定了基礎。心術論沒有預設一個形而上的心性本體,而是將道德的產生視為自然情感向道德情感提升轉化的結果,促成這一轉化的是詩、書、禮、樂的教化過程。在"道始于情"而"終于義"的理路下,通過內在心術與外在禮樂教化的有機結合,《性自命出》不但實現了道德基礎與道德原則的統一,也實現了道德的主觀精神與客觀教化過程的統一,是周代禮樂文明道德實踐的思想總結,與后來以理學為代表的道德形而上學形成明顯區別。

The ideas about xin(the heart)in Xing zi ming chu(Human Nature is Brought Forth by Decree),the bamboo slips from the Chu tomb at Guodian,are a theory not of the nature of the heart,but of the manners of the heart.The latter does not presuppose a metaphysical/transcendental heart-in-itself,but considers the genesis of morality as a result of the transformation of natural emotion into moral emotion by means of the education provided by rites and music.This idea of the manners of the heart was widely accepted by early Confucians and laid a foundation for Mencius’s theory of the nature of the heart.The combination of the internal manners of the heart and external ritual education leads to the unity of subjective spirit and objective enlightenment.