四书 (Sìshū): the Four Books (核心 Confucian cl…

Meanings

1 the Four Books (核心 Confucian classics): the Great Learning 大学, the Doctrine of the Mean 中庸, the Analects 论语, and Mencius 孟子

Characters

四

Examples

古代读书人必须熟读四书五经。

Gǔdài dúshūrén bìxū shúdú Sìshū Wǔjīng.

Educated people in ancient times had to be thoroughly familiar with the Four Books and Five Classics.

他从小就背诵四书。

Tā cóngxiǎo jiù bèisòng Sìshū.

He has been reciting the Four Books since childhood.

Tips

history

The grouping is Zhu Xi's (朱熹, Southern Song dynasty). He extracted 大学 and 中庸 from 《礼记》, paired them with 《论语》 and 《孟子》, and produced 《四书章句集注》 (1190). From 1313 (Yuan) until 1905 (Qing), the imperial civil-service exams drew their questions from this set with Zhu Xi's commentary as canon — meaning a thousand years of Chinese officialdom were filtered through these four short books.