Four Books and Five Classics

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It has been suggested that Four Books be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)

It has been suggested that Five Classics be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)

This article contains Chinese text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Chinese characters.

The Four Books and Five Classics (traditional Chinese: 四書五經; simplified Chinese: 四书五经; pinyin: Sìshū Wŭjīng) are the authoritative books of Confucianism in China written before 300 BC.

[edit] Four Books

The Four Books are Chinese classic texts that Zhu Xi selected, in the Song dynasty, as an introduction to Confucianism:

• The Great Learning (大學)
• The Doctrine of the Mean (中庸)
• The Analects of Confucius (論語)
• The Mencius (孟子).

[edit] Five Classics

The Five Classics is a corpus of five ancient Chinese books used by Confucianism as the basis of studies. According to tradition, they were compiled or edited by Confucius himself. They are*

• Classic of Changes (易經) (also known as the I Ching)
• Classic of Poetry (詩經)
• Classic of Rites (禮記)
• Classic of History (書經)
• Spring and Autumn Annals (春秋)

[edit] See also

• Chinese classic texts
• Chinese literature

v • d • e The Four Books and Five Classics (四書五經) The Four Books The Great Learning (大學) • The Doctrine of the Mean (中庸) • The Analects (論語) • The Mencius (孟子) The Five Classics Classic of Changes (易經) • Classic of Poetry (詩經) • Classic of Rites (禮記) • Classic of History (書經) • Spring and Autumn Annals (春秋)