Reading order of the four books and five classics

The combination of these four books began with Zhu's Notes on the Four Books. In the ranking order, Daxue ranked first, The Analects of Confucius and Mencius ranked second, and The Doctrine of the Mean ranked last. His original intention is that people should read "university" first to determine its scale; Read the Analects of Confucius for the second time to establish its foundation; Read Mencius for the second time to see its development; For the subtleties of the ancients, read The Mean. "University" is regarded by Zhu as the scale of self-cultivation and the outline of learning. He said: "Read the University first and set up its program. Other classics are miscellaneous. After getting through the "University", I can see that this is Governor Wu Ge. This is a sincere thing. This is a matter of self-cultivation. This is a matter of managing the family, governing the country and leveling the world. " As for The Doctrine of the Mean, Zhu regarded it as a classic taught by Confucius' mind method, and quoted Cheng Yi as saying, "This book has a truth at the beginning, a truth in the middle, and a truth at the end. Let it go, it is connected with everything, and it is so mysterious to get it back. " It is not difficult to see that Zhu regards "university" as the program of Neo-Confucianism, while "golden mean" is the essence of Neo-Confucianism. In addition, Zhu believes that the Analects of Confucius and Mencius must also be read, "to explore their roots." He said: "The important task of scholars is to seek for themselves." It's no big deal to ask yourself. The two books, Yu and Meng, are connected. I want to see the sage's intention clearly, admire it and stick to it. "This not only further consolidated the status of The Analects of Confucius, but also further improved the status of Mencius. Zhu's remolding and exertion of the image of Confucius and Mencius made an indelible contribution to the gathering and refining of China's traditional culture.