Thank you for visiting. This article is the third installment in a series explaining the original texts of Confucianism.
This time, I explain Confucianism’s other pillar, the “Five Classics.” Whereas the Four Books are the teaching of Confucius and his successors, the Five Classics are an older group of classics handed down from before Confucius.
For an overview map of Confucianism’s original texts as a whole, please see this summary article.
What Are the Five Classics — the Classics Confucius Studied
The “Five Classics” is the general name for five classics handed down in ancient China — the “Book of Changes,” “Book of Documents,” “Book of Odes,” “Book of Rites,” and “Spring and Autumn.”
These were not newly made by Confucius. Rather, they are old books that Confucius himself is said to have deeply studied, edited, arranged, and transmitted to later ages. That is, for Confucianism the Five Classics are the “classics among classics” that became the source of the teaching. Confucius inherited this wisdom of the ancients and tried to breathe new life into it.
The Origins of Religion: Why We Needed a ‘God’View on Amazon →
A Complete History of Philosophy and ReligionView on Amazon →
The Book of Changes — a Philosophy Born from Divination
The “Book of Changes” is originally a book of divination.
Its mechanism is based on combinations of yin (broken line) and yang (solid line). By the “eight trigrams” (heaven, earth, water, fire, thunder, wind, mountain, lake) combining three lines, and the “sixty-four hexagrams” further stacking two of these, it represents every situation and change of the world, and divines good and ill fortune.
The eight trigrams each have a symbol of nature. With “Qian = heaven,” all three yang, and “Kun = earth,” all three yin, as the two poles, water, fire, thunder, wind, mountain, and lake are arranged between them. And at the root of all was held to be the unified state before yin and yang divided, the “Supreme Ultimate (taiji).” Yin and yang generate and nurture each other and ceaselessly shift — this idea also became the foundation of the later Neo-Confucianism (the thought of principle and material force).
But the “Book of Changes” did not stay a mere book of divination. In addition to the main text (the classic), the worldview behind it — “all is made up of combinations of yin and yang, and ceaselessly changes” — came to be read out as a deep philosophy through the 10 commentaries said to have been added by Confucius, the “Ten Wings.” Its thought, represented by words like “when at an impasse, change occurs; when change occurs, a way opens,” went beyond the frame of divination and became a great source of East Asian thought, applied even to politics, conduct of life, medicine, and the art of war.
The Book of Documents — the Record of Ideal Politics
The “Book of Documents” (also “Shangshu”) is a record of politics, gathering the words, commands, and speeches of ancient China’s kings and sages.
Here are recorded the virtue-filled politics of the legendary sage-kings whom Confucianism idealizes, “Yao, Shun, and Yu.” For example, the opening “Canon of Yao” conveys how Emperor Yao set the calendar and ordered the people’s life, and ceded his position not by bloodline but to the virtuous Shun — the “abdication.” The idea of the “Mandate of Heaven,” that a ruler governs the people in place of Heaven, and stern words of warning to the ruler, are recorded throughout.
For Confucianism, the “Book of Documents” was a model showing “what ideal politics is,” and was held to be a textbook of politics that rulers should learn. Note that the “Book of Documents” was once lost in the Qin burning of books, and in the process of being restored in the Han era, the genuine old text (New Text) and a text of doubtful authenticity “discovered” later (Old Text) became mixed, and its authenticity long troubled later scholars.
The Book of Odes — China’s Oldest Poetry Collection
The “Book of Odes” is the oldest surviving poetry collection in China, containing about 305 poems. Its content divides largely into three.
- Airs: folk songs and love songs sung by the common people of various lands (about 160 poems)
- Odes: songs sung at court ceremonies and banquets (about 105 poems)
- Hymns: solemn songs for venerating ancestors and gods (about 40 poems)
It may seem surprising, but many are poems singing the simple love and life of the common people. “Guan Ju,” which adorns the opening, is also a fresh love poem, singing of love for a fair lady, likened to waterbirds by a river. The techniques of expression of poetry were organized into three — “narration (fu),” stating things as they are, “comparison (bi),” likening to other things, and “evocation (xing),” beginning to sing from a natural scene — and became the basis of later Chinese poetry.
Confucius greatly valued this “Book of Odes,” and evaluated it: “Of the three hundred poems, if one covers them in a single phrase, it is: ‘have no depraved thoughts.’” He also preached, “One is roused by poetry, stands by ritual, and is completed by music (a person rouses the heart by poetry, becomes independent by ritual, and is completed by music),” and taught his disciples too that “without learning poetry, one cannot even speak properly with people.” Cultivating a rich sensibility was also an indispensable part of Confucian learning.
The Book of Rites — Recording All of Ritual
The “Book of Rites” is a book gathering various records, commentaries, and treatises concerning “ritual.”
From the manners of ceremonial occasions, court ceremonies, and how to behave in daily life, to the thought behind ritual, matters relating to ritual are broadly contained. Considering that Confucianism valued “ritual” as the linchpin of social order, one can see the importance of this book.
The “Great Learning” and “Doctrine of the Mean” of the Four Books seen last time (Article 2) were originally a chapter within this “Book of Rites.” From the fact that Zhu Xi extracted them and promoted them to the Four Books, one can glimpse how rich a book the “Book of Rites” was in thought.
The “Book of Rites” also has many passages that resonate in the heart. Most famous among them is the ideal of the “Great Unity” recorded in the “Conveyance of Rites” chapter. There, an ideal society without conflict is depicted, where “all under heaven is a common possession,” and people cherish not only their own parents and children but the elderly and children of others, and everyone can live in peace. This idea of the “Great Unity” was inherited as an ideal even by the far-later reformers of modern China. Note that, as classics concerning ritual, the “Three Rites,” adding the “Ceremonies and Rites” and “Rites of Zhou” to this “Book of Rites,” are known.
The Spring and Autumn — the History Confucius Recorded
The last of the Five Classics is the “Spring and Autumn.” This is the chronicle (chronological history) of Confucius’s home state of Lu, said to have been edited by Confucius himself.
The descriptions of the “Spring and Autumn” are extremely concise, plainly lining up events. But it was held that within its choice of words and way of writing, Confucius’s moral evaluation (judgment of good and evil) is contained. This is called the “brushwork of the Spring and Autumn.” For example, when a subject kills his lord, the special word “regicide” rather than “kill” is used to make the outrage stand out, and the death of an illegitimate ruler is recorded in demoted words. This method of putting “praise and blame” into the choice of a single character was later evaluated as “the blame of a single character is sterner than the axe.” The idea that recording history itself is a moral undertaking of praising good and warning against evil gave a decisive influence on later East Asian historiography.
The overly concise “Spring and Autumn” cannot have its true intent read out without commentary. The three commentaries born for this are the “Three Commentaries on the Spring and Autumn.” The “Zuo Commentary” richly supplements the background historical facts in detail as a story and is famous as literature too, while the “Gongyang Commentary” and “Guliang Commentary” unravel, in question-and-answer form, the moral meaning put into each word. That, even of the same original text, the commentaries divided over “reading it as story or as teaching” is also interesting.
From Six Classics to Five Classics
Finally, a supplement. Originally, Confucianism preached the “Six Classics,” adding the classic of music, the “Book of Music,” to the Five Classics. But the “Book of Music” was lost early, and the five that remained as a result came to be transmitted as the “Five Classics.” A remnant that Confucianism, along with ritual, considered music too an important cultivation that orders people can be glimpsed here.
Beyond the Burning of Books — How the Five Classics Were Handed Down
That the Five Classics have come down to us was, in fact, an event close to a miracle. This is because Qin Shi Huang, who disliked Confucians, in 213 BC, had books except practical ones burned, and is said to have buried Confucians alive — the “burning of books and burying of scholars,” by which many classics were lost.
In the following Han era, the court valued Confucianism and put effort into restoring the lost classics. At this time, two lineages appeared. One is the “New Text classics,” in which old scholars who survived the burning wrote down the classic text they remembered in the script of the time (clerical script). The other is the “Old Text classics,” manuscripts written in the old script, discovered within the wall of Confucius’s old house and elsewhere. The two had differences in text and interpretation, and the “New Text–Old Text dispute” over which to make orthodox became a great theme running through the history of Chinese scholarship thereafter. Behind a single original text being handed down lay such life-risking preservation, and a long struggle over interpretation.
To Learn More
Here are some related books. Reading them alongside this series lets you savor this world even more deeply.
An Illustrated Introduction to the World’s 5 Great MythologiesView on Amazon →
World Mythology for Beginners (illustrated)View on Amazon →
Conclusion
In this article, I explained in detail Confucianism’s old group of classics, the “Five Classics.” How was it?
The Five Classics were a group of classics handed down from before Confucius, consisting of the “Book of Changes” of divination and philosophy, the political record “Book of Documents,” the oldest poetry collection “Book of Odes,” the record of ritual “Book of Rites,” and the history book “Spring and Autumn.” Confucius inherited these and made them the foundation of Confucianism.
In the next Article 4, I will explain systematically the central ideas of Confucianism (the Five Constants, Five Relations, filial piety) running through these original texts.
I hope you’ll read the next article too.
📚 Series: The Original Texts of Confucianism (4/6)
