In Song Dynasty, Zhu extracted two books from The Book of Rites, The Great Learning and The Doctrine of the Mean, which were called four books together with The Analects of Confucius and Mencius, and were the main Confucian classics.

The four books, also known as the four sub-books, refer to The Analects of Confucius, Mencius, University and The Doctrine of the Mean. Zhu, a famous philosopher in the Southern Song Dynasty, took out two articles from The Book of Rites, The Doctrine of the Mean and University, and together with The Analects of Confucius and Mencius, compiled four books to record Confucius' words and deeds. The authors of the four books include Confucius, Zi Si, Mencius, Zhu Xi and so on. , their compilation time interval reached 1800 years. After the Song and Yuan Dynasties, "Da Xue" and "The Doctrine of the Mean" became official textbooks and required books for imperial examinations, which had a great influence on ancient education.

1 190 (the first year of Song Guangzong), Zhu Zaifu, a famous philosopher of the Southern Song Dynasty, took out The Great Learning and two books from The Book of Rites, and combined them with The Analects of Confucius and Mencius to publish them as a set of classics. The Confucian scholar believes that "go to college first to determine its scale; Read the Analects of Confucius for the second time to determine its roots; Read Mencius for the second time to see its development; When I read The Doctrine of the Mean, I once said that "Four Books and Five Classics, the Order of Six Classics" (Zhuzi) Zhu Zhu's annotation of Four Books and Chapters is of epoch-making significance. There are five classics in Han and Tang Dynasties (Book of Changes, Shangshu, Book of Songs, Book of Rites and Spring and Autumn Annals), and four books after Song Dynasty. As Confucian classics, the Four Books not only preserved the thoughts and wisdom of Confucian sages, but also reflected the evolution of early Confucianism. It contains the core content of Confucianism, and it is also the concentrated embodiment of Confucian epistemology and methodology. Therefore, it had a far-reaching influence in the history of China's thought. Among them, there is no lack of excellent ideological essence, which is the crystallization of countless China sages' thoughts. Up to now, it still has its profound educational significance and enlightening value, and it can be called the essence of national culture with a long history.