About the Book
Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC), the founder of the Confucian school, was a great thinker and educator in the late Spring and Autumn Period (春秋). During the Han Dynasty (汉朝), Dong Zhongshu proposed to the Emperor Wu of Han (汉武帝) to dismiss 100 schools of thoughts and respect Confucianism alone. As a result, Confucianism became the mainstream philosophy. Confucianism had a unique advantage in advancing the governance of the classical society. No wonder, among the emperors of all dynasties, Confucius was revered as the "most holy priest". In fact, the Confucian school has influenced Chinese classical society for over 2000 years. To this day, Chinese people still cherish Confucius' writings.
The current book volume,
Confucius: Four Books & Five Classics, is a Chinese reading practice book. It would introduce you to the numerous important dimensions of
Confucian philosophy, including famous
Four Books and Five Classics (四书五经). These literature masterpieces, written before 300 BC, are the authoritative books of Confucianism in China. The newest volume in the Introduction to
Chinese Culture Series (中华文化入门) includes both the Chinese text (simplified characters) and pinyin Romanization. With about 1000 unique Chinese characters, the volume would be suitable for the beginners, lower intermediate and advanced level Chinese language learners (HSK 1-6). Overall, the reading series offers you a variety of elementary level books (Level 1/2/3) to learn Chinese culture as well as practice Chinese reading fast.
The book has 13 chapters in the following order:
Chapter 1: Confucius (第一章：孔子)
Chapter 2: Confucianism (第二章：儒家)
Chapter Three: The Four Books and Five Classics (第三章：四书五经)
Chapter 4: The University/Great Learning (第四章：《大学》)
Chapter 5: The Golden Mean/Doctrine of the Mean (第五章：《中庸》)
Chapter 6: The Analects of Confucius (第六章：《论语》)
Chapter 7: Mencius (第七章：《孟子》)
Chapter 8: The Five Classics (第八章：五经)
Chapter 9: The Book of Songs/Classic of Poetry (第九章：《诗经》)
Chapter 10: The Book of Shang/Book of Documents (第十章：《尚书》)
Chapter 11: The Classic of Rites/Book of Rites (第十一章：《礼记》)
Chapter 12: Book of Changes/Zhouyi (第十二章：《周易》)
Chapter 13: The Spring and Autumn Annals (第十三章：《春秋》)
