Four Books and Five Classics
The Four Books were not written as one set. In the Southern Song, Zhu Xi grouped the Great Learning, the Doctrine of the Mean, the Analects, and the Mencius as the order for reading the classics. Later civil-service exams gave those four special weight. The Five Classics were already a canon in the Han. An earlier list also had a Book of Music, which did not survive on its own, so the usual name is the Five Classics. This page says what each book is. It does not reprint them.
Four Books
| Book | What it is | Read |
|---|---|---|
| Great Learning (大学) | A chapter of the Book of Rites. It sets an order from self-cultivation to governing. | Text |
| Doctrine of the Mean (中庸) | Also from the Book of Rites. It discusses the mean, not either extreme. | Text |
| Analects (论语) | Sayings of Confucius and his students, compiled by later followers. | Text |
| Mencius (孟子) | Dialogues of Mencius. A Confucian book from the middle Warring States period. | Text |
Five Classics
| Book | What it is | Read |
|---|---|---|
| Book of Songs (诗经) | The earliest collected songs, in the Feng, Ya, and Song sections. | Text |
| Book of Documents (尚书) | Speeches and charges attributed to early rulers. Some chapters in the received text are disputed. | Text |
| Book of Rites (礼记) | In the Five Classics, “Rites” usually means the Book of Rites. The Rites of Zhou and the Ceremonial Rites are separate books. | Text |
| Book of Changes (周易) | Hexagrams used for divination, later also read as philosophy. | Text |
| Spring and Autumn Annals (春秋) | The chronicle of the state of Lu, usually read with the Zuo Tradition. | Text |
Text links go to the Chinese Text Project so the titles can be checked. This site does not host the works.
These pages are cultural references. They are not a basis for feng shui, ancestral rites, or a visa decision.