The Six Classics: the collective title of "Poetry", "Book", "Ritual", "Yi", "Music" and "Spring and Autumn".
First seen in "Zhuangzi - Tianyun Chapter". It refers to the six pre-Qin ancient books compiled and taught by Confucius. The full names of these six classic works are, in order, "The Book of Songs", "The Book of Books" (i.e. "Shang Shu"), "The Book of Rites", "The Book of Changes" (i.e. "Book of Changes"), "The Book of Music" and "Spring and Autumn Annals".
Extended information:
Confucius, the founder of the Chinese Confucian school, compiled the "Poems", "Books", "Li", "Yi", "Le" and "Spring and Autumn" in his later years, which are later known as It is the "Six Classics".
Among them, the "Yue Jing" has been lost, so it is usually called the "Five Classics". "Book of Rites": The Han Dynasty refers to the "Book of Rites", and the "Book of Rites" in the "Five Classics" after the Song Dynasty generally refers to the "Book of Rites". In the "Three Character Classic": "The Book of Changes of Poetry, the Rites of the Spring and Autumn Period, and the title of the Six Classics, should be emphasized." Rites refer to the "Big Rites" and "Little Rites", one of which was later lost and renamed the "Book of Rites".
These six ancient books were not written by Confucius, but existed long before Confucius. Confucius only did some sorting work on them. [1]?
These six ancient books have survived from ancient times. Before Confucius, they were owned by the royal family and nobles, and were deeply treasured by rulers of all ages. "Guoyu·Chuyu Part 1" records that when Uncle Shen talked about educating the royal princes, the teaching materials listed included these six ancient books.
“The place of teaching is to make one know the rules of the upper and lower parts; the joy of teaching is to calm them down by sparing them from joining together, so that they can know the pros and cons and avoid fear; the teaching of the "Traditional Code" is to make them understand the race and practice comparisons. "Yi Yan." Nine kinds of ancient books are mentioned here: "Spring and Autumn", "Shi", "Poetry", "Li", "Yue", "Ling", "Yu", "Old Records" and "Xun Dian". Most of the Six Classics compiled by Confucius are included in it, and these titles have been frequently seen in other pre-Qin documents.
Baidu Encyclopedia-Six Classics (Confucian Classics)