Four Books Chapters and Sentences (Upper and Lower)

Author: Guangling Shushe
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2001-03-01
Features: The Four Books with Explanations includes four parts: Great Learning with Explanations, Doctrine of the Mean with Explanations, Analects, and Mencius. Together with the Five Classics (Book of Songs, Book of Documents, Book of Changes, Book of Rites, and Spring and Autumn Annals), they form the Confucian classics and held an absolute monopoly in ancient school education. Before the Song Dynasty, the Five Classics were established in schools, and Tang Yingda's Commentary on the Confucian Classics was the officially recognized annotation of the classics. During the Song Dynasty, scholars Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi revered the Great Learning, considering it the door to virtue for beginners. They also revered the Doctrine of the Mean, calling it the heart method of Confucian transmission. As a result, they elevated the Great Learning, Doctrine of the Mean, Analects, and Mencius to the status of classics, annotating them to be placed alongside the Five Classics. Annotations of the Four Books have long been regarded as the most authoritative and have become an unshakable model for later generations. This is because Zhu Xi inherited and greatly developed Confucian thought, taking it to a new stage—known as Neo-Confucianism, a milestone in the history of Chinese thought. From the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, feudal rulers revered Neo-Confucianism, making Zhu Xi's Collected Annotations on the Four Books a mandatory reading for imperial examinations.
Zhu Xi (1130–1200) was a scholar and Neo-Confucian philosopher of the Southern Song Dynasty. His courtesy name was Huai, and he was also known as Zhonghui, Huai'an, or Huiweng. He was known as Ziyang and was from Wuyuan, Huizhou (now Wuyuan, Jiangxi). He resided in Jianyang and served under the four emperors of the Gao, Xiao, Guang, Ning, and Zong dynasties, achieving high official positions. His studies were influenced by the teachings of the Cheng family, and he was renowned as one of the Three Scholars of Southeast alongside Zhang Shi and Lü Zuxian. He was a highly knowledgeable scholar who annotated numerous classical texts and was regarded as a master of Confucianism.
For this edition of the Four Books with Explanations, we used the Collected Annotations on the Four Books based on the Four Books in the Wu County Wu family's imitation Song Dynasty typeface. We made minor adjustments to the original format, retained Zhu Xi's prefaces and introductory guides, removed annotations within the text to ensure a cohesive flow, and preserved all variant and ancient characters while correcting only a few typographical errors.