The analysis of the structure of Chinese characters from the perspective of word formation began in the pre-Qin era. For example, "everything is done by Han Feizi?" Wu's Note: "When the ancients wrote books, they called it private from Ringo and public from the back. "
The word "Six Books" first appeared in Zhou Li. "Zhou Li? Sheriff? Bao's "Bao Jian Wang's evil deeds, Tao Yang Guo Zi" is the six arts of teaching: one is five rites, the other is six music, the third is five shots, the fourth is five orders, the fifth is six books, and the sixth is nine numbers. "Here is a list of the" Six Arts "projects that were used to educate the children of nobles in the Zhou Dynasty, including" Six Books ",and Zhou Li did not specify the contents of the six books. Six books have no explanation.
As for the details of the six books, it was not recorded until the Han Dynasty. There are three kinds of descriptions in the six books of Han Dynasty. One is Zheng Zhong, "Zhou Li? Sheriff? In Bao's notes, Joe Cheng was quoted as saying: "Six Books: Pictograph, Understanding, Annotation, Processing, Borrowing and Coordination. "One is Ban Gu, in Hanshu? There is a cloud in the Book of Changes: "The Zhou family raised the son of the country, and the six books they taught called the number of images, images, images, sounds, notes and arguments are also the basis of word creation. "One is Xu Shen's Shuo Wen Jie Zi? As the saying goes, "Li Zhou entered primary school at the age of eight, and the Bao family taught the country, starting with Liushu." When I say, pointing to things, pointing to things, seeing and knowing, seeing and seeing, is also up and down. Second, pictographs, pictographs, are painted things, and the sun and the moon are also. Third, the sound of sound, the sound of sound, in the name of things, for example, complement each other, rivers also. Four words, know, know, and friendship, see what it means? So is Wu Xin. On the fifth day, the note was transferred, the transferor built the class, agreed to accept it, and kept taking the test. Sixth, borrow, borrow, there is no word in it, relying on the voice to seek things, the commander also. "
Xu Shen not only pointed out the names of "Six Books", but also defined each book and gave examples. According to Mr. Tang Lan's textual research, the three schools come down in one continuous line because of Ban Gu's Hanshu? Yiwenzhi was abridged according to Seven Views written by Liu Xin, the founder of ancient Chinese classics in the late Western Han Dynasty. The names and order of the six books listed should also be based on Liu Xin's statement. The academics of Joe Cheng and Xu Shen are all related to Liu Xin. Joe Cheng's father is a student in Liu Xin, and Xu Shen's teacher Jia Kui's father Jia Hui is also a student in Liu Xin. However, there are two differences in details among the three schools: first, the titles of things, knowledge and sound are different; second, the titles of books are different. Later researchers believe that the different titles of the books reflect that the three schools may have different understandings of these three books, and the different times of each book reflect that the three schools may have different views on the order in which various languages appear. Later generations, when expounding the theory of Six Books, mostly based on Zhu Zonglai's ideas, starting from the names of Xu Shen's Six Books, followed the order of Ban Gu's Six Books, namely, "pictographic, indicative, knowing, pictographic, phonetic notation and borrowing".