Yet though the details of Liu Hsin's theory may be wrong, his attempt to trace the origin of the schools to certain political and social circumstances certainly represents a right point of view. I have quoted him at length because his description of the various schools is itself a classic in Chinese historiography.
刘歆理论的某些细节虽可能有错误，但他从政治和社会环境去探求各家的由来，无疑是一种正确的观点。上面较多地引述了他的见解，因为他对各家的描述已成为中国史料学在这方面的一种经典式见解。
The study of Chinese history has made great progress in China in recent times, especially during the few years just before the Japanese invasion of 1937. In the light of recent research, therefore, I have formed a theory of my own in regard to the origin of the philosophic schools. In spirit this theory agrees with that of Liu Hsin, but it must be expressed in a different way. This means that things have to be seen from a new angle.当代以来，尤其是一九三七年抗日战争前几年，中国史学的研究有了长足的进步。根据这些研究成果，我对诸子百家的起源形成了自己的见解。我的理论在精神上和刘歆是一致的，但需要换一种方式来说明，这就是说，对这问题要用一个新的角度来考察。Let us imagine what China looked like politically and socially in the tenth century B.C. At the top of the political and social structure, there was the King of the Chou royal house, who was the "common lord" of all the different states. Under him were hundreds of states, each owned and governed by its Princes. Some of them were established by the founders of the Chou dynasty, who had allotted the newly conquered territory as feudal fiefs to their relatives. Others were ruled by the former rivals of the Chou house, who now, however, acknowledged the King of Chou as their "common lord".让我们来想象一下，公元前十世纪中国的政治和社会是什么样子。在政治社会结构顶端的是国君和周王室，后者是列国的“共主”。在周王室下面是数以百计的小国，分别由这些小国的国君统治。其中有些是周王朝开国时所封给皇族贵胄的，还有一些是由原与周王室争霸的诸侯所统治，这些诸侯后来尊周为“共主”，因而受册封的。Within each state, under the Prince, the land was again divided into many fiefs, each with its own feudal lord, who were relatives of the Prince. At that time, political power and economic control were one and the same. Those who had the land were the political and economic masters of it, and of the people who lived on it. They were the chün tzu, a term which literally means "sons of the Princes", but which was used as a common designation of the class of the feudal lords.在每一个小国里，国君又把国土分为若干采邑，封给他的家族成员，使这些家族成员成为诸侯。当时的政治权力和经济权力是不分的。拥有采邑的诸侯，既是土地的领主，成为经济的主人，又是采邑百姓的主人。他们被称为“君子”，意思是“国君之子”，这也成为封建诸侯的共同名称。The other social class was that of the hsiao ren,meaning small men, or shu min, meaning common people or the mass. These were the serfs of the feudal lords, who cultivated the land for the chün tzu in time of peace, and fought for them in time of war.另一个社会阶级是“小人”或“庶民”，意思是普通百姓。他们是封建诸侯的农奴，平时为君子（诸侯）种田服劳役，战时为君子作战服兵役。