Five Classics
The Five Classics (Wujing) were lengthy collections of prose and poetry that formed the core of the Chinese Confucian canon from the Western Han dynasty (206 BCE–6 CE) through the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279), when another collection, the Four Books, began to gain prominence through the influence of Neo-Confucianism. The Five Classics were the following: Shijing (Book of Songs; also called Classic of Poetry or Book of Odes), the Shujing (Book of Documents), the Li (Rites), the Yijing (Book of Changes, often known in English under its Wade-Giles romanization: I-ching), and the Chunqiu (Spring and Autumn Annals). A sixth, the Yue (Music), is no longer extant.
Although literate elites in China and elsewhere celebrated the Five Classics as primary expressions of Confucian thought, each of the classics had roots in traditions and practices far older than the era of Confucius (551–479 BCE) himself. The Shijing is made up of 305 verse texts of varying length, the earliest dating from the tenth century BCE and the latest from the sixth. Contents range from sacrificial hymns to folk songs. The Shujing purported to record key speeches of sage rulers; the earliest chapters dated to the tenth century BCE, and the latest were fourth-century CE forgeries. The Li, as codified in three distinct texts (the Liji [Record of Rites], the Yili [Ceremonies and Rites], and the Zhouli [Rites of Zhou]), detailed ritual prescriptions for a range of public events, from governmental entertainments to funerals and mourning, and defended the role of ritual propriety as a tool of social control. The Yijing, originally a divination manual constructed around sixty-four hexagrams and associated early Zhou mantic texts, came to include much cosmological and political philosophy in the form of commentaries. The Chunqiu, a terse chronicle of the years 722 to 479 BCE, was accompanied by three commentaries containing more extensive historical and exegetical material: the Zuo commentary (Zuozhuan) and the commentaries of the Gongyang and Guliang schools (Gongyangzhuan, Guliangzhuan).
By 136 BCE, when Han Emperor Wu (reigned 141–87 BCE) elevated the five works by appointing official teachers for them at the capital, the texts were strongly associated with Confucius, who was believed to have had edited or written parts of each of them. The Five Classics's canonical status was cemented in later centuries by the frequent appearance of new commentaries and by the court's expectation that most prospective candidates for government office would be able to demonstrate a basic knowledge of the works in their essays for civil service examinations. Confucian courts in Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and elsewhere also promulgated the Five Classics as a basis for moral philosophy and political practice. In contemporary China, debate over the antiquity and importance of the Five Classics continues to serve as an index of cultural continuity.
Further Reading
Legge, James, trans. (1960) The Chinese Classics. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.
Loewe, Michael, ed. (1993) Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide. Berkeley and Los Angeles: The Society for the Study of Early China and the Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California Press.
Nylan, Michael. (2001) The Five "Confucian" Classics. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
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