儒家

Confucian literature has two layers. The classics were the texts taught in the imperial academies from the Han dynasty and were later fixed as the Thirteen Classics. The writings of the school are the discussions that grew up around them, from Confucius’s disciples to later Confucians. The Four Books (Great Learning, Analects, Mencius, Doctrine of the Mean) became the standard order of study after the Song dynasty; the Five Classics (Odes, Documents, Rites, Changes, Spring and Autumn) are older.

The Zhou Changes and its commentaries are in the Yi Jing category and are not repeated here, so each text has one address. The Great Learning and the Doctrine of the Mean come from the Book of Rites, but they are listed separately because the Four Books reading order has made them independent works.

How to read this branch

Start with the Four Books in order: the Great Learning sets the frame, the Analects records the sayings, Mencius develops them, and the Doctrine of the Mean closes the sequence. Then read the Book of Songs, the Book of Documents, the Book of Rites and the Spring and Autumn commentaries. Xunzi, the Chunqiu Fanlu, Reflections on Things at Hand and Instructions for Practical Living show how the school’s thought was later argued and extended.