Four Books and Five Classics, Volumes 1 and 2

Author: Chen Shuguo (ed.)
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-01-01
Features: What are the "Four Books and Five Classics"? They are the titles of the combined works of the Four Books and the Five Classics. What are the Four Books? They are the Great Learning, Doctrine of the Mean, Analects, and Mencius. The Great Learning and Doctrine of the Mean originally belonged to the Book of Rites, and when combined with the Analects and Mencius, they formed the Four Books, as determined by Zhu Xi of the Southern Song Dynasty. The Five Classics are: the Book of Changes (first), the Book of Documents (second), the Book of Songs (third), the Book of Rites (fourth), and the Spring and Autumn Annals (fifth). The term "Five Classics" has been used since the Han Dynasty, but the actual contents of the Five Classics have not always been the same. For example, the Book of Rites originally referred to the seventeen chapters in the Han Dynasty's Records of the Grand Historian; the Book of Rites was originally recorded by the followers of the seventy disciples of Confucius. The purpose of naming and recording these texts was to interpret the classics, which is the inherent meaning of this title. The Book of Rites became a classic earlier than the Five Classics Commentaries of the Tang Dynasty; however, the practice of replacing the Book of Rites with the Book of Rites began in the Song Dynasty. "To abandon the classics and rely on commentaries, to neglect the root and pursue the branch," was what Zhu Xi once criticized. Today, we continue this tradition to follow the old customs. The Book of Rites is the most difficult to read, so reading the Book of Rites first to avoid difficulty and take the easy path may be considered for young scholars. Since the Book of Rites is used, the repetition of the Great Learning and Doctrine of the Mean cannot be avoided, nor should it be avoided. The Four Books have Zhu Xi's annotations and collected notes, while the Five Classics each use the annotations of Song and Yuan scholars, which was the custom from the Yuan, Ming, and mid-Qing dynasties. The current annotated edition does not include any annotations, making it a plain text edition. In Answers to Questions about Catalogs, there is an entry titled "Gu Xiang Zhai Xiu Zhen Wu Jing Si Shu," which states: "Published by the imperial court during the Kangxi era. No annotations." This is also a plain text edition. Can it be read? The answer is: yes. The Records of the Han Dynasty say: "In ancient times, scholars farmed and supported themselves while studying, and after three years, they mastered one art, preserving its essence and playing with the classic texts. Therefore, they used less time but accumulated more virtue, and by the age of thirty, they had mastered the Five Classics." Plain text editions are "just playing with the classic texts." Annotations and commentaries are certainly not to be abandoned, but people really suffer from their complexity. To study classics until one is old and gray is not something society urgently needs, nor is it something most people willingly do. However, "preserving the essence" is acceptable. Moreover, annotations and commentaries are not without the danger of being restrictive, so why should we rely entirely on them? As Dong Yu once said, "Read a book a hundred times, and its meaning will become clear," and he had good reason for saying so.