The Four Books and Five Classics, collectively called the Four Books and Five Classics, are China Confucian classics. The four books refer to The Analects of Confucius, Mencius, Daxue and The Doctrine of the Mean. The Five Classics refer to The Book of Songs, Shangshu, Book of Rites, Zhouyi and Chunqiu, which are referred to as "Poems, Books, Rites, Righteousness and Chunqiu" for short. In fact, there should have been six classics and one book long ago, which are collectively called "poetry, calligraphy, ceremony, music, Yi, Spring and Autumn". The Four Books and Five Classics are the basic bibliography of Confucianism after the Southern Song Dynasty, and they are also the required reading bibliography for Confucian students.

Four Books are Confucian classics. Zhu, a scholar in the Southern Song Dynasty, took out two books in The Book of Rites, Daxue and Zhong Yong, and combined them with The Analects of Confucius and Mencius into four books. It is said that they are called "Four Books" (also called "Four Books") because of the four representatives of early Confucianism, namely Zeng Shen, Zi Si, Confucius and Mencius. After that, the four books were listed as the scope of imperial examinations in previous dynasties, thus creating the unique position of the four books. Even after the Song Dynasty, the Four Books had surpassed the Five Classics.

During the first year of Song Guangzong (1 190), Zhu, a famous Neo-Confucianism scholar, collected works such as The University, The Analects of Confucius, Mencius and The Doctrine of the Mean in Zhangzhou, Fujian, and published 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; For the subtleties of the ancients, read The Mean. He once said that "Four Books" and "Steps of Six Classics" ("Zhuzi School") Zhu's Notes on Four Books and Sentence Reading are of epoch-making significance. The Han and Tang Dynasties were the Five Classics era, and the Song Dynasty was the Four Books era.

The Four Books refer to The Analects of Confucius, Mencius, The Doctrine of the Mean and The University. Among them, The Analects of Confucius and Mencius are collections of speeches by Confucius, Mencius and their students respectively, while Daxue and The Doctrine of the Mean are two books in The Book of Rites. Zhu, a famous scholar in the Southern Song Dynasty, first linked the two. However, before Zhu, Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi had strongly advocated these books. They believe that "University" is an important book of Confucius' "the door for beginners to enter Germany" and was compiled by Confucius' students. The Doctrine of the Mean is a book "Confucius teaches the mind", and it is a pen, which is written by Confucius' grandson Zisi. Together with The Analects of Confucius and Mencius, these two books express the basic ideology of Confucianism and are the most important documents for studying and treating Confucianism. It is from this perspective that Zhu compiled four books: The Analects of Confucius, Mencius, University and The Doctrine of the Mean. Because they came from four representatives of early Confucianism, namely, Confucius, Zeng Shen, Zi Si and Mencius, they were called "Four Books" for short. Zhu annotated the four books respectively. Among them, the annotations of Daxue and The Doctrine of the Mean are called "chapters and sentences", and the annotations of The Analects and Mencius are called "concentrated notes" because they quote many other people's sayings. It is worth noting that the order of Zhu's four books was originally The University, The Analects of Confucius, Mencius and The Doctrine of the Mean, which was arranged in the order of learning from the shallow to the deep. Later generations put The Doctrine of the Mean before The Analects of Confucius because the length of Daxue and The Doctrine of the Mean was short. In order to facilitate printing and publishing, it became the order of Daxue, The Doctrine of the Mean, The Analects of Confucius and Mencius.

Because Zhu Zhu's "Four Books" not only combines the theories of predecessors, but also has its own unique views, which are applicable to the world; Due to the rising status of "Zhu Cheng Neo-Confucianism" represented by Cheng Hao, Cheng Yi brothers and Zhu, after Zhu's death, the court approved four books with his annotations as official books, which became popular from then on, and resumed the imperial examination in the Yanyou period of the Yuan Dynasty (13 14- 1320), officially. Due to these factors, the Four Books not only became important classics of Confucianism, but also became a must-read for every reader and became a unified standard primary school textbook until modern times. Therefore, some people compare the four books with the Western Bible and think that they are the Eastern Bible. In fact, whether it is its widespread spread or its profound influence on the character and psychology of China people, this comparison is not an exaggeration.