Four Books and Five Classics [Excerpt] Volume 1 and 2

Author: Chen Shuguo (ed.)
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2002-12-01
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, the Doctrine of the Mean, the Analects of Confucius, and the Mencius. The Great Learning and the 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 during 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 Yi Zhi; the Book of Rites (or Records of the Rites) was originally compiled by the disciples of the seventy sages of Confucius. The purpose of naming and recording these texts was to interpret the classics, which is the implied meaning of this title. The Book of Rites became a classic earlier than the Tang Dynasty's Five Classics Rectifications; however, the practice of replacing the Book of Rites with the Book of Rites (or Records of the 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. Yet we still follow it today, preserving its entirety and adhering to tradition. The Book of Rites is the most difficult to read, so reading the Records of the Rites first to avoid difficulty is perhaps a consideration for young scholars. Since we use the Records of the Rites, the repetition of the Great Learning and the Doctrine of the Mean cannot be avoided, nor should it be. 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 excludes all annotations, making it a plain text edition. In Catalogue of Books, there is an entry titled "Gu Xiang Zhai Xiu Zhen Wu Jing Si Shu" (Small Edition of the Five Classics and Four Books), which states: "Published by the imperial court during the Kangxi era. No annotations." This is also a plain text edition. Is it readable? The answer is yes. The Yi Zhi of the Han Dynasty says: "In ancient times, scholars farmed and supported themselves while studying, and after three years, they mastered one art, preserving its essence and engaging with the classic texts. Thus, they used less time but accumulated more virtue, and by the age of thirty, they had mastered the Five Classics." Plain text editions are about "engaging with the classic texts." While annotations and commentaries are indispensable, people often find them cumbersome. To study classics until old age is not a need urgently required by society or willingly pursued by most. Therefore, "preserving the essence" is sufficient. Moreover, annotations and commentaries are not without their pitfalls—how can we rely entirely on them? As Dong Yu once said, "Read a book a hundred times, and its meaning will become clear," and there is wisdom in this.