Dr. Holzman feels that Hsi K'ang was primarily an apolitical figure who "sought to transcend the world rather than save it," but some Chinese scholars consider him to have been "a Confucian by nature in the trappings of a Taoist."
侯思孟就覺得嵇康從許多方面來看，都是一個「只求出世成仙、不求濟世」的「非政治人」，可是卻有一部分中國學者把嵇康認定為「儒家本位、道家只是掩飾」。然而，在眾說紛紜之中，誰又曾認真考慮一位「外國人」提出的見解和論證呢？