What do the Four Books and Five Classics refer to?

The four books and five classics are collectively called the four books and five classics, which generally refer to Confucian classics.

Four books: The Great Learning, The Doctrine of the Mean, The Analects of Confucius and Mencius.

Five Classics: The Book of Songs, Shangshu, Book of Rites, Zhouyi and Chunqiu.

The Book of Rites usually includes three rites, namely, Yili, Zhou Li and the Book of Rites. Chunqiu is usually published together with Zuo Zhuan, Yang Gongzhuan and Gu Liangzhuan, which explain Chunqiu.

The naming of the Four Books began in the Song Dynasty, and the naming of the Five Classics began in Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.

Extended data:

For hundreds of years, the "Four Books" have been widely circulated in China, and many of them have become popular aphorisms. Among them, The Analects of Confucius and Mencius are collections of speeches by Confucius, Mencius and their students respectively, while Daxue and The Doctrine of the Mean are two books in the Book of Rites, which are called "Four Books" because the four representative figures of early Confucianism are Confucius, Mencius, Zeng Shen and Zi Si respectively. Zhu, a famous scholar in the Southern Song Dynasty, first linked the two.

The Five Classics is the collective name of five ancient classic works based on Confucianism. It is said that they were edited or revised by Confucius, one of the founders of Confucianism.

Qin Shihuang "burned books to bury Confucianism". It is said that Yue Ji was lost after the Qin fire. On this basis, The Analects of Confucius, The Book of Filial Piety and The Seven Classics of * * * were added in the Eastern Han Dynasty. In the Tang Dynasty, Zhou Li, Book of Rites, Biography of the Spring and Autumn Ram, Biography of the Spring and Autumn Valley and Erya were added, and the twelve classics were * * *; Mencius was supplemented in the Song Dynasty, and later the Notes to Thirteen Classics was handed down from generation to generation.

Thirteen Classics is the basic work of Confucian culture. As far as traditional concepts are concerned, Yi, Shi, Shu, Li and Chunqiu are called classics, while Zuo Zhuan, Yang Gongzhuan and Gu Liangzhuan belong to Chunqiu Jingzhuan and Book of Rites. The last five classics refer to the Book of Changes, Shangshu, Book of Songs, Book of Rites and Zuo Zhuan.

References:

Baidu encyclopedia-four books and five classics