The Thirteen Confucian Classics: Insights and Observations

This book provides some insights and makes some observations on the Thirteen Confucian Classics. These books are comprised of ancient and diverse records, both oral and textual, that form the Confucian canon. A general understanding of the thirteen Confucian Classics in an accessible form will undoubtedly help readers better understand Chinese culture, Chinese history, Chinese thoughts, the Chinese people and China as a whole.

The thirteen Confucian Classics are:

"The Book of Changes", the first of the thirteen classics that introduced the earliest concepts and symbols the Chinese people used to analyze changes--yin and yang, the eight trigrams and the sixty-four hexagrams, which were initially applied in divination and later formed the basis of Chinese philosophy.

"The Book of Documents" (or "Documents of History)"is the earliest collection of Chinese historical documents and contains much data about political thinking and historic and cultural aspects of Pre-Qín society.

"The Book of Songs"is the earliest collection of Chinese poetry, which dates from the 11th to the 7th Centuries BC.

"The Rites of the Zhou"is a book that recorded the structure of the government, political, economic, cultural and ritual systems in the Pre-Qin period.

"Etiquette and Rites"is a book that recorded rites and etiquette practiced by officials in the Zhou Dynasty.

"The Record of Rites and Ceremonies"is a book of annotations of the above two books of rites and contains much data for the study of history before the Western Han period.

"The Spring and Autumn Annals with commentary by Zuo Qiuming", "The Spring and Autumn Annals with commentary by Gongyang" and "The Spring and Autumn Annals with commentary by Guliang"are three books of annotations of the Spring and Autumn Annals edited by Confucius.

"Analects of Confucius"is a highly influential book containing the thoughts, comments and behavior of Confucius as recorded by his disciples. It has had the most impact on Chinese cultural traditions and Chinese ethical thinking. Some people compare its influence to the Bible in the West.

"The Classic of Filial Duty"elaborated, in simple and plain words, on ways of filial duty, which the ancient Chinese took as the foundation of all virtue. Ancient scholars viewed the book as a reservoir of the Six Confucian Classics, and used it as a primer for children for many generations. The Classic has eighteen chapters and each chapter is summarized and discussed.

The "Erya Dictionary"is the earliest surviving book of its kind in China that dates from at least the 3rd Century BC with parts of it compiled as early as the 6th century BC. The Ery is China's first comprehensive dictionary compiled according to semantic groups. The chapter describes the structure and rationale for the compiling of the dictionary, it briefly talks about the history and then takes words from each section to illustrate the nature of the book.

"The Book of Mencius"defended and developed Confucian thoughts on Heaven and destiny, man's innate good nature, ethics, values, the role of morality and ideals and the self-cultivation of morality and the idea that people are the foundation of stable government based on benevolent governance. The book was accepted among the list of Confucian classics in the Song Dynasty.

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