Chinese ClassicsFour Books and Five Classics
The Four Books of Confucianism (traditional Chinese: 四書; pinyin: Sì Shū) are Chinese classic texts that Zhu Xi selected, in the Song dynasty, as an introduction to Confucianism. They were, in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, made the core of the official curriculum for the civil service examinations. They are:
The former two are chapters in The Classic of Rites (禮記) while the latter two are collections of sayings and teachings of Confucius and Mencius as well as sayings of their disciples. Zhu Xi, a Neo-Confucianist of the Southern Song Dynasty, held that The Four Books together outlined the basic system of Confucian thoughts and constituted a better introduction to the complicated materials in the Classics, thus selecting these four texts from Classics and put them together as the Four Books. The Five Classics (simplified Chinese: 五经; traditional Chinese: 五經; pinyin: Wŭ Jīng) are five ancient Chinese books used by Confucianism as the basis of studies. These books were compiled or edited by Confucius himself. They are:
The Book of Poetry is the earliest collection of Chinese poems and it is the source of Chinese verse and the starting point of the Chinese realistic epic. Therefore, The Book of Poetry serves as the most valuable and important material in the study of the Chinese language from the 11th century to the 6th century B.C. The Classic of History is a compilation of documentary records related to events in ancient China. The Classic of Rites is the earliest and most complete record of social hierarchies and ceremonies in ancient China. The Book of Changes, also referred to as Zhou Yi (Book of Changes of the Zhou Dynasty), is regarded as the most preeminent among all Classics in ancient China. The Spring and Autumn Annals were the official chronicles of the states during the Pre-Qin Period, however, only that of the State of Lu covering the period from 722 BC to 481 BC survived. This book was also compiled by Confucius thereby gaining extra significance and becoming a Confucian Classic. It is also the forerunner of the "chronological style" of historiography.
Scholarship on these texts naturally divides itself into two periods, before and after the "Qin Fire" (焚书坑儒, Burning of the books and burying of the scholars, refers to a policy and a sequence of events in the Qin Dynasty of Ancient China, between the period of 213 and 206 BC), when many of the original texts, especially those of Confucianism, were burned in a political purge. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Four Books and Five Classics were the subject of mandatory study by those Confucian scholars who wished to become government officials. Any political discussion was full of references to this background, and one could not be one of the literati, or even a military officer, without knowing them. Generally, children first studied the Chinese characters with rote memorization of the Three Character Classic and Hundred Family Surnames, then went on to memorize the other classics, in order to ascend in the social hierarchy. More broadly speaking, Chinese classic texts may refer to texts, be they written in vernacular Chinese or in classical Chinese, that existed before 1912, when the last imperial Chinese dynasty, the Qing Dynasty, fell. These can include shi (史, historical works), zi (子, philosophical works belonging to schools of thought other than the Confucian, but also works of agriculture, medicine, mathematics, astronomy, divination, art criticism, and all sorts of miscellaneous writings) and ji (集, literary works) as well as jing. Library of Chinese Classics (Chinese-English Edition)Library of Chinese Classics is an ambitious cultural project to edit, translate, and publish the whole corpus of the Chinese literary classics so that the nation's greatest cultural achievements can be introduced to people all over the world. With 5,000 years of history, the Chinese nation has a glorious culture. The Chinese literary classics is a huge treasure house of this cultural tradition and civilization. There have been many translations of the Chinese classics done in the past by Western missionaries and sinologists and Chinese scholars, however, that are on a very limited scale to the nation's culture. The rest of the world still lacks a complete and fundamental understanding of the culture of the Chinese nation. The Library of Chinese Classics series composes of the most influential and representative works from the vast sources of the Chinese literary classics, from the works of the Qin dynasty down to modern times, including philosophy, religion, politics, economics, military, history, literature, art, medicine, and technology, in the aim to fully display the cream of the Chinese culture. The Library of Chinese Classics first publishes Chinese-English bilingual edition. Each book contains its best Chinese edition and English translation, some ancient Chinese texts also given authentic modern Chinese translations. All the works are in their original text, facing-page authentic Chinese and English editions. The Library of Chinese Classics is particularly suitable for libraries, scholars, teachers and students of Chinese studies.
汉英对照版《大中华文库》 The Confucian Four BooksChinese Military ClassicsRelated Links
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The Classic of Music (樂經) is sometimes considered as the
sixth classic. Since most parts of it are destroyed during
the Burning of the Books, the remaining sections are
collected as two books in the Classic of Rites.
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