The four books and five classics refer to the four books and five classics collectively. The naming of the Four Books began in the Song Dynasty, and the naming of the Five Classics began in Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.
The Four Books and Five Classics occupy a very important position in many literary works of China traditional culture, and they are the core classics of Confucian scholars' research in past dynasties. The Four Books and Five Classics recorded in detail the political, military, diplomatic, cultural and other historical materials in China's early ideological and cultural development history, as well as the important thoughts of thinkers such as Confucius and Mencius.
The four books refer to The Analects of Confucius, Mencius, Daxue and The Doctrine of the Mean. The Five Classics refer to The Book of Songs, Shangshu, Book of Rites, Zhouyi and Chunqiu, which are referred to as "Poems, Books, Rites, Changes and Chunqiu" for short. In fact, there should have been six classics and one book long ago, which are collectively called "poetry, calligraphy, ceremony, music, Yi, Spring and Autumn". The Four Books and Five Classics are the basic bibliography of Confucianism after the Southern Song Dynasty, and they are also the required reading bibliography for Confucian students.
During the first year of Song Guangzong (1 190), Zhu, a famous Neo-Confucianism scholar, collected works such as The University, The Analects of Confucius, Mencius and The Doctrine of the Mean in Zhangzhou, Fujian, and published them as a set of classics.
The Confucian scholar believes that "go to college first to determine its scale; Read the Analects of Confucius for the second time to determine its roots; Read Mencius for the second time to see its development; When I read The Doctrine of the Mean, I once said that "Four Books and Five Classics, the Order of Six Classics" (Zhuzi) Zhu Zhu's annotation of Four Books and Chapters is of epoch-making significance. The Han and Tang Dynasties were the Five Classics era, and the Song Dynasty was the Four Books era.