Four Books and Five Classics. The naming of the Four Books began in Zhu in the Southern Song Dynasty, while the naming of the Five Classics began as early as the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. Elephant is the main research work of Confucian scholars in past dynasties. The four books are Great Learning, The Doctrine of the Mean, The Analects of Confucius and Mencius. The Five Classics are The Book of Songs, Shangshu, Book of Rites, Zhouyi and Chunqiu. Chunqiu is covered by a subtle statement of righteousness, so it is often collected together with its annotations, such as Zuo Zhuan, Gong Yang Zhuan and Gu Liang Zhuan.
Zhu annotated four books, The Great Learning, The Doctrine of the Mean, The Analects of Confucius and Mencius respectively. Among them, the annotations of Daxue and the Doctrine of the Mean are called "chapters and sentences", and the annotations of The Analects and Mencius are called "concentrated notes" because they quote many other people's sayings.
The Value of Four Books and Five Classics
As long as we talk about the traditional culture of China, we must mention the "Four Books and Five Classics". "Four Books and Five Classics" is an important part of China's traditional culture, the core carrier of Confucianism and the treasure of China's historical and cultural ancient books. The Confucian classic "Four Books and Five Classics" is profound and has a very high position in the history of world cultural thought.
The "Four Books and Five Classics" recorded in detail the political, military, diplomatic and cultural historical materials in the most active period in the history of China's national ideological and cultural development, as well as the important philosophical thoughts of Confucius and Mencius that have influenced China culture for thousands of years. There is nothing else in the examination paper for selecting officials in the imperial examinations of past dynasties, but it must come from the "four books and five classics", which shows its importance to being an official and being a man.
The Four Books and Five Classics have an immeasurable influence on social norms, interpersonal communication and social culture. Today, the contents and philosophical thoughts contained in the Four Books and Five Classics still have positive significance and strong reference value for us modern people.
The above contents refer to Baidu Encyclopedia-Four Books and Five Classics.