The ancients learned six arts. What exactly does Six Arts mean?

Six arts refer to six skills: etiquette, music, archery, bending, calligraphy and mathematics.

Ceremony: Etiquette (similar to moral education today).

Le: Music.

Shooting: archery technique.

The skill of driving a carriage.

Books: refer to the six books of calligraphy (writing, literacy and composition): pictographic, indicative, knowing, pictophonetic, phonetic, annotation and borrowing books.

Number: number refers to rational number and qi number (the law of usage), that is, the movement law of yin and yang and five elements.

The aristocratic education system in the Zhou Dynasty in China began in the Zhou Dynasty in BC 1046, which required students to master six basic talents: etiquette, music, archery, bending, calligraphy and mathematics.

Extended data:

Four Books, Five Classics and Six Arts

The four books refer to the Great Learning, The Doctrine of the Mean, The Analects of Confucius and Mencius.

The Five Classics refer to The Book of Songs, Shangshu, Book of Rites, Zhouyi and Chunqiu, which are referred to as "Poems, Books, Rites, Changes and Chunqiu" for short. In fact, there should have been a book called "Poetry, Calligraphy, Ceremony, Music, Yi, Spring and Autumn", but

There are two versions of Six Arts. One is the six basic abilities that China ancient Confucianism required students to master, including courtesy, music, shooting, imperial command, calligraphy and number. Ceremony is etiquette, music is music, shooting is riding skill, royal is driving a carriage skill, books are calligraphy, and numbers count.

There is another saying that the Six Arts are interpreted as the Six Classics, namely, The Book of Changes, Shangshu, The Book of Songs, The Book of Rites, Jing Yue and Chunqiu. It is the core carrier of Confucianism and an important part of China traditional culture.

Baidu Encyclopedia-Liu Yi