China's Classic Collection · Time-Honored Literary Selections. Classics of Confucianism, History, and the Hundred Schools of Thought

Author: None
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-03-01
Features: Yao Jituan's compilation of classical Chinese prose is divided into thirteen categories. I slightly modified it into eleven categories:
- Discourses
- Poems and Prose
- Prefaces and Postfaces
- Imperial Edicts
- Memos and Petitions
- Letters
- Eulogies
- Biographies and Genealogies
These nine categories are the same as Yao's.
- Complimentary Prefaces: Yao included these, but I did not.
- Narratives and Records: These are included by me but not by Yao.
- Odes and Eulogies: Yao included these, but I attached them to the lower section of Poems and Prose.
- Epitaphs and Biographies: Yao included these, but I attached them to the lower section of Biographies and Genealogies.
In village schools, some select Zuo Zhuan for classical Chinese studies, and the discerning may mock them. In recent times, a few knowledgeable scholars compiling classical texts no longer go back to the Six Classics, claiming it is to respect the classics. However, tracing the origin of classical Chinese's name, it was established by discarding the parallel prose of the Six Dynasties and returning to the Three Dynasties and the Han Dynasty. Now, if we abandon the classics and seek them elsewhere, it is like someone who speaks of filial piety yet respects only their father and grandfather while forgetting their great-grandparents, or someone who speaks of loyalty yet says, "I am merely a minister—how dare I know about the state?" Is this acceptable?
When I compile this collection, each category must begin with the Six Classics. A small stream seeks the vast sea—it has no room for compromise.
Yao Jituan compiled classical Chinese without including historical records, believing that history had too much to record.