本文探討儒家在先秦此一奠基時期所呈現的財富思想，並兼論及兩漢時期的司馬遷、董仲舒以及《鹽鐵論》的相關內容。討論主題包括貧窮是否為美德的條件、士君子是否可以求富、財富的合理範圍與尺度界限、富貴或貧窮者的人格特質、致富手段的道德性，以及財富分配的正義原則等。本文歸結出先秦儒家在人道關懷、財富與道德主義的張力中，所主張的是一種小康式的財富階層說。

The present article explores Confucian thinking on wealth in the pre-Ch'in period. The Author discusses some topics such as if poverty is the condition of virtue, if a "chun-tz"（君子）can devote himself to the pursuit of wealth, the limits of one's possessions, one's personality when one becomes poor or rich, the morality of avenues to obtain wealth, and the justice of wealth distribution, etc. The Author concludes that the claim of Confucians in the pre-Ch'in period was a kind of wealth hier­archical theory which aims for the so-called "hsiao-k'ang"（小康）．