What is the difference between Confucianism and Confucian classics?

There are differences and connections between Confucian classics and Confucianism. In terms of time, Confucianism appeared earlier than Confucian classics. As a school in the pre-Qin period, Confucianism came into being with the improvement of its status. By the middle of the Western Han Dynasty, the imperial court had set up a "doctor of the Five Classics", and then formed a special "study of the Classics". Since then, Confucianism has largely existed and developed in the form of Confucian classics.

2. In terms of coverage, Confucianism is much wider than Confucian classics. Confucian classics refers to the knowledge of explaining and interpreting Confucian classics. After the death of Confucius, "Confucianism was divided into eight schools". During the Qin and Han Dynasties, there were fifteen Confucianism schools. As for those non-Buddhist doctrines introduced by Buddhism and established by Taoism, they are often called "Confucianism". In modern times, the so-called "new Confucianism" appeared. According to the classification of traditional bibliography, Confucian classics and Confucianism are both separated and overlapped. For example, there is a separate "classics" in the four-part classification, and most of the documents in the classics belong to Confucian works. In Hanshu, Confucian works such as Zisi, Ceng Zi, Mencius and Xunzi are classified as "Zhuzi's Brief". It can be seen that the ancients still distinguished Confucian classics from Confucianism very clearly. Therefore, we cannot simply equate "Confucian Classics" with "Confucianism".