"By age 20 he had found the right direction within academia: he wanted to become an ordinary scholar, and did not consider himself an orthodox Confucianist," noted historian Wu Hsiang-hsiang.
「他在弱冠之年就已在學術叢林中找到一個正確走向：要做一位純粹的學人，而不以道統自居，」史學家吳湘相分析。孔老先生自己回顧學術生涯時也表示，抗戰時期受屈萬里和傅斯年二位先生影響甚深。