What are the Thirteen Classics?

Thirteen Classics refers to thirteen Confucian classics formed in the Southern Song Dynasty. They are The Book of Songs, Shangshu, Zhou Li, Yi Li, The Book of Rites, The Book of Changes, Zuo Zhuan, The Biography of Gongyang, Liang Bochuan, The Analects of Confucius, Er Ya, Xiao Jing and Mencius.

Thirteen Classics is the ancestor of handed down documents and the source and backbone of Confucian ideology and culture. Its content is extensive and profound, including many aspects of traditional culture, such as the thinking mode of harmony between man and nature, the ideal of harmony in the world, the principle of people-oriented governance, the ethical proposition of harmonious interpersonal relationship, the spirit of unremitting struggle and so on. The essence of these thoughts and spirits permeates the national character and psychology, and has a strong cohesion, which still has a positive impact.

Development course:

1, six meridians

Poetry, books, rituals, music, the Book of Changes, the Spring and Autumn Period. It first appeared in Zhuangzi Tian Yun. It refers to the six pre-Qin books compiled and taught by Confucius. The full names of these six classic works are The Book of Songs, The Book of Songs (Shangshu), The Book of Rites, The Book of Changes (Zhouyi), Jing Yue and Chunqiu. Among them, Yue was lost as early as the end of the Warring States Period.

2. Five Classics

The Six Classics became the Five Classics because Yue was lost in the Warring States Period, so the doctors of the Five Classics such as Poetry, Calligraphy, Rite, Change, Spring and Autumn Period were established in Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. These doctors are academic officials who specialize in teaching Confucian classics, and are responsible for their own classic research and teaching students. By the end of the Western Han Dynasty, the number of scholars studying the Five Classics had gradually increased to fourteen, so they were also called the Fourteen Doctors of the Five Classics.