The Four Books and Five Classics () are the authoritative books of
Confucianism
Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a Religious Confucianism, religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, ...
, written in
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
before 300 BCE. The
Four Books
The Four Books and Five Classics () are the authoritative books of Confucianism, written in China before 300 BCE. The Four Books and the Five Classics are the most important classics of Chinese Confucianism.
Four Books
The Four Books () are C ...
and the
Five Classics are the most important classics of Chinese
Confucianism
Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a Religious Confucianism, religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, ...
.
Four Books
The Four Books () are
Chinese classic texts illustrating the core value and belief systems in
Confucianism
Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a Religious Confucianism, religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, ...
. They were selected by intellectual
Zhu Xi in the
Song dynasty
The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the res ...
to serve as general introduction to Confucian thought, and they were, in the
Ming
The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last orthodox dynasty of China ruled by the Han pe ...
and
Qing dynasties, made the core of the official curriculum for the
civil service examinations.
More information of them are as follows:
List
; ''
Great Learning''
: Originally one chapter in the ''
Book of Rites
The ''Book of Rites'', also known as the ''Liji'', is a collection of texts describing the social forms, administration, and ceremonial rites of the Zhou dynasty as they were understood in the Warring States and the early Han periods. The ''Boo ...
''. It consists of a short main text attributed to
Confucius
Confucius ( ; zh, s=, p=Kǒng Fūzǐ, "Master Kǒng"; or commonly zh, s=, p=Kǒngzǐ, labels=no; – ) was a Chinese philosopher and politician of the Spring and Autumn period who is traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages. C ...
and nine commentary chapters by
Zengzi, one of the
disciples of Confucius. Its importance is illustrated by Zengzi's foreword that this is the gateway of learning.
It is significant because it expresses many themes of Chinese philosophy and political thinking, and has therefore been extremely influential both in classical and modern Chinese thought.
; ''
Doctrine of the Mean''
: Another chapter in ''
Book of Rites
The ''Book of Rites'', also known as the ''Liji'', is a collection of texts describing the social forms, administration, and ceremonial rites of the Zhou dynasty as they were understood in the Warring States and the early Han periods. The ''Boo ...
'', attributed to
Confucius
Confucius ( ; zh, s=, p=Kǒng Fūzǐ, "Master Kǒng"; or commonly zh, s=, p=Kǒngzǐ, labels=no; – ) was a Chinese philosopher and politician of the Spring and Autumn period who is traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages. C ...
' grandson
Zisi. The purpose of this small, 33-chapter book is to demonstrate the usefulness of a golden way to gain perfect virtue. It focuses on the
Way
Way may refer to:
Paths
* a road, route, path or pathway, including long-distance paths.
* a straight rail or track on a machine tool, (such as that on the bed of a lathe) on which part of the machine slides
* Ways, large slipway in shipbuildi ...
(道) that is prescribed by a heavenly mandate not only to the ruler but to everyone.
; ''
Analects''
: A compilation of speeches by
Confucius
Confucius ( ; zh, s=, p=Kǒng Fūzǐ, "Master Kǒng"; or commonly zh, s=, p=Kǒngzǐ, labels=no; – ) was a Chinese philosopher and politician of the Spring and Autumn period who is traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages. C ...
and his disciples, as well as the discussions they held. Since Confucius's time, the ''Analects'' has heavily influenced the philosophy and moral values of
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
and later other
East Asia
East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea ...
n countries as well. The
Imperial examinations, started in the
Sui dynasty
The Sui dynasty (, ) was a short-lived imperial dynasty of China that lasted from 581 to 618. The Sui unified the Northern and Southern dynasties, thus ending the long period of division following the fall of the Western Jin dynasty, and la ...
and eventually abolished with the founding of the
Republic of China, emphasized Confucian studies and expected candidates to quote and apply the words of Confucius in their essays.
; ''
Mencius''
: A collection of conversations of the scholar
Mencius with kings of his time. In contrast to the sayings of
Confucius
Confucius ( ; zh, s=, p=Kǒng Fūzǐ, "Master Kǒng"; or commonly zh, s=, p=Kǒngzǐ, labels=no; – ) was a Chinese philosopher and politician of the Spring and Autumn period who is traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages. C ...
, which are short and self-contained, the ''Mencius'' consists of long dialogues with extensive prose.
Five Classics
The Five Classics () are five pre-Qin (i.e.
Spring and Autumn and
Warring States periods) Chinese books that form part of the traditional Confucian canon. Several of the texts were already prominent by the
Warring States period
The Warring States period () was an era in History of China#Ancient China, ancient Chinese history characterized by warfare, as well as bureaucratic and military reforms and consolidation. It followed the Spring and Autumn period and concluded ...
.
Mencius, the leading Confucian scholar of the time, regarded the ''Spring and Autumn Annals'' as being equally important as the semi-legendary chronicles of earlier periods. During the
Western Han dynasty, which adopted Confucianism as its official ideology, these texts became part of the state-sponsored curriculum. It was during this period that the texts first began to be considered together as a set collection, and to be called collectively the "Five Classics".
List
;''
Classic of Poetry
The ''Classic of Poetry'', also ''Shijing'' or ''Shih-ching'', translated variously as the ''Book of Songs'', ''Book of Odes'', or simply known as the ''Odes'' or ''Poetry'' (; ''Shī''), is the oldest existing collection of Chinese poetry, c ...
''
:A collection of 305 poems divided into 160 folk songs, 105 festal songs sung at court ceremonies, and 40 hymns and eulogies sung at sacrifices to heroes and ancestral spirits of the royal house.
;''
Book of Documents''
:A collection of documents and speeches alleged to have been written by rulers and officials of the early Zhou period and before. It is possibly the oldest Chinese narrative, and may date from the 6th century BC. It includes examples of early Chinese prose.
;''
Book of Rites
The ''Book of Rites'', also known as the ''Liji'', is a collection of texts describing the social forms, administration, and ceremonial rites of the Zhou dynasty as they were understood in the Warring States and the early Han periods. The ''Boo ...
''
:Describes ancient rites, social forms and court ceremonies. The version studied today is a re-worked version compiled by scholars in the third century BC rather than the original text, which is said to have been edited by Confucius himself.
;''
I Ching'' (''Book of Changes'')
:The book contains a
divination system comparable to Western
geomancy or the West African
Ifá system. In
Western cultures and modern East Asia, it is still widely used for this purpose.
;''
Spring and Autumn Annals
The ''Spring and Autumn Annals'' () is an ancient Chinese chronicle that has been one of the core Chinese classics since ancient times. The '' Annals'' is the official chronicle of the State of Lu, and covers a 241-year period from 722 to 481 ...
''
:A historical record of the
State of Lu
Lu (, c. 1042–249 BC) was a vassal state during the Zhou dynasty of ancient China located around modern Shandong province. Founded in the 11th century BC, its rulers were from a cadet branch of the House of Ji (姬) that ruled the Zhou dy ...
, Confucius's native state, 722–481 BC.
The ''
Classic of Music
The ''Classic of Music'' () was a Confucian classic text lost by the time of the Han dynasty. It is sometimes referred to as the "Sixth Classic" (for example, by Sima Qian) and is thought to have been important in the traditional interpretations ...
'' is sometimes considered the sixth classic but was lost.
Up to the Western Han, authors would typically list the Classics in the order Poems-Documents-Rituals-Changes-Spring and Autumn. However, from the Eastern Han the default order instead became Changes-Documents-Poems-Rituals-Spring and Autumn.
Authors and editors of later eras have also appropriated the terms "Book" and "Classic" and applied them ironically to compendia focused on patently low-brow subject matter. Examples include the ''Classic of Whoring'' (''Piaojing'' 嫖經) and Zhang Yingyu's ''A New Book for Foiling Swindles'' (''Dupian Xinshu'' 杜騙新書, ca. 1617), which is known colloquially as ''
The Book of Swindles'' or ''The Classic of Swindles''.
Authorship
Traditionally, it was thought that Confucius himself had compiled or edited the texts of the Five Classics. The scholar Yao Xinzhong allows that there are good reasons to believe that Confucian classics took shape in the hands of Confucius, but that "nothing can be taken for granted in the matter of the early versions of the classics." From the time of the Western Han dynasty, Yao continues, most Confucian scholars believed that Confucius re-collected and edited the prior works, thereby "fixing" the versions of the ancient writings which became the Classics. In the twentieth century, many Chinese scholars still held to this tradition. The
New Confucian
New Confucianism () is an intellectual movement of Confucianism that began in the early 20th century in Republican China, and further developed in post-Mao era contemporary China. It primarily developed during the May Fourth Movement. It is d ...
scholar,
Xiong Shili (1885–1968), for instance, held that the Six Classics were the final versions "fixed up" by Confucius in his old age. Other scholars had and have different views. The
Old Text School, for instance, relied on versions found in the Han dynasty which supposedly survived the Qin dynasty
burning of the books but many of them held that these works had not been edited by Confucius but survived directly from the
Zhou dynasty
The Zhou dynasty ( ; Old Chinese ( B&S): *''tiw'') was a royal dynasty of China that followed the Shang dynasty. Having lasted 789 years, the Zhou dynasty was the longest dynastic regime in Chinese history. The military control of China by th ...
.
For quite different reasons, mainly having to do with
modern textual scholarship, a greater number of twentieth century scholars both in China and in other countries hold that Confucius had nothing to do with editing the classics, much less writing them. Yao Xinzhong reports that still other scholars hold the "pragmatic" view that the history of the Classics is a long one and that Confucius and his followers, although they did not intend to create a system of classics, "contributed to their formation."
[Hsin-chung Yao, An Introduction to Confucianism (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000), pp. 52–54.] In any case, it is undisputed that for most of the last 2,000 years, Confucius was believed to have either written or edited these classics.
The most important events in the textual career of these classics were the adoption of Confucianism as state orthodoxy in the
Han dynasty
The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Emperor Gaozu of Han, Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by th ...
, which led to their preservation, and the "renaissance" of Confucianism in the
Song dynasty
The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the res ...
, which led to their being made the basis of Confucian orthodoxy in the
imperial examination system
The imperial examination (; lit. "subject recommendation") refers to a civil-service examination system in Imperial China, administered for the purpose of selecting candidates for the state bureaucracy. The concept of choosing bureaucrats by ...
in the following dynasties. The
Neo-Confucian sage
Zhu Xi (1130–1200) fixed the texts of the Four Books and wrote commentaries whose new interpretations became accepted as being those of Confucius himself.
[Daniel K. Gardner. ''The Four Books: The Basic Teachings of the Later Confucian Tradition''. Indianapolis: Hackett, 2007. .]
See also
*
Chinese literature
*
Thirteen Classics
*
Daozang
*
Daodejing
*
Zhuangzi
*
Liezi
*
Wenzi
*
Mahayana Sutras
The Mahāyāna sūtras are a broad genre of Buddhist scriptures (''sūtra'') that are accepted as canonical and as ''buddhavacana'' ("Buddha word") in Mahāyāna Buddhism. They are largely preserved in the Chinese Buddhist canon, the Tibet ...
*
Sutta Pitaka
*
Prasthanatrayi
*
Yoga Sutras
References
External links
Ulrich Theobald, "Chinese Literature – alphabetical index"at ChinaKnowledge – a universal guide for China studies
{{DEFAULTSORT:Four Books And Five Classics
Chinese classic texts
Confucian texts
Chinese literature
Chinese philosophy
Zhu Xi
Series of Chinese books
Chinese Classical Studies