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

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

The Four Books, namely The Analects of Confucius, Mencius, The Great Learning, and The Doctrine of the Mean, also known as The Four Masters' Books, are the books that Confucian scholars have primarily studied throughout the ages. In the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhu Xi selected the chapters of The Great Learning and The Doctrine of the Mean from The Book of Rites, made annotations by chapters, and combined them with The Analects of Confucius and Mencius as the "Four Books". The Four Books and their annotations include the disciples and second-generation disciples of Confucius, Mencius, Cheng Zi, Zhu Xi, etc. The compilation of them lasted for as long as 1,800 years. After the Southern Song Dynasty, the Four Books became official school books and designated titles for the imperial examinations, exerting a great influence on education and culture in successive dynasties.