The Four Books and Five Classics refer to the "Four Books" and "Five Classics" collectively, and are the core classics of Confucian scholars' research in past dynasties. Among the numerous literary works of China traditional culture, the Four Books and Five Classics occupy a very important position. It is also a compulsory content of ancient scientific research, so which four books are these? This article will briefly share this knowledge:

The four books are The Analects of Confucius, Mencius, University and The Doctrine of the Mean. In the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhu selected two articles from The Book of Rites, The Doctrine of the Mean and The Great Learning, and combined them with The Analects of Confucius and Mencius into four books. Addition and deletion notes in the four books include Confucius disciples, Mencius, Zhu and so on. , the compilation time interval reaches 1800 years.

After the Song and Yuan Dynasties, "Da Xue" and "The Doctrine of the Mean" became official textbooks and required books for imperial examinations, which had a great influence on ancient education. It contains the core content of Confucianism and is the concentrated embodiment of Confucian epistemology and methodology. It has far-reaching influence in the history of China's thought. Scholar Zhu annotated these four books 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. It is worth noting that the order of the four books compiled by Zhu was originally The University, The Analects of Confucius, Mencius and The Doctrine of the Mean, which was arranged in the order of learning from the shallow to the deep. Later generations put The Doctrine of the Mean in front of The Analects because of its short space. For the convenience of engraving and publishing, it became the popular order of The Doctrine of the Mean, The Analects of Confucius and Mencius the year before last.

Because Zhu Zhu's "Four Books" not only combines the theories of predecessors, but also has its own unique views, which are applicable to the world; Due to the rising status of Neo-Confucianism represented by Cheng Hao, Cheng Yi brothers and Zhu, after Zhu's death, the court approved four books with his annotations as official books, which became popular from then on, and resumed the imperial examination in the Yanyou period of the Yuan Dynasty (13 14- 1320). Following the yuan system, the Ming and Qing Dynasties developed the "Eight-part essay" examination system, and the topic also came from Zhu Zhu's "Four Books". The four books are not only Confucian classics, but also must-read for every reader. In modern times, the "Four Books" have also been incorporated into primary school textbooks.