Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC), the founder of the Confucian school, was a great thinker and educator in the late Spring and Autumn Period (¿¿). During the Han Dynasty (¿¿), Dong Zhongshu proposed to the Emperor Wu of Han (¿¿¿) 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 (¿¿¿¿). 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 (¿¿¿¿¿¿) 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 (¿¿¿¿¿¿)
Chapter 2: Confucianism (¿¿¿¿¿¿)
Chapter Three: The Four Books and Five Classics (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿)
Chapter 4: The University/Great Learning (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿)
Chapter 5: The Golden Mean/Doctrine of the Mean (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿)
Chapter 6: The Analects of Confucius (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿)
Chapter 7: Mencius (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿)
Chapter 8: The Five Classics (¿¿¿¿¿¿)
Chapter 9: The Book of Songs/Classic of Poetry (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿)
Chapter 10: The Book of Shang/Book of Documents (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿)
Chapter 11: The Classic of Rites/Book of Rites (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿)
Chapter 12: Book of Changes/Zhouyi (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿)
Chapter 13: The Spring and Autumn Annals (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿)