The 5 Canonized Classics

I Ching

• These five books, or parts of them, were either commented, compiled, or edited by Confucius himself.

• The oldest manuscript that has been found, albeit incomplete, dates back to the Warring States Period.

• Traditionally, the I Ching and its hexagrams were thought to be before recorded history.

• It is suggested that the earliest layer of the text may date from the end of the 2nd millennium BC, but place doubts on the mythological aspects in the traditional accounts.

• Not the work of one or several legendary or historical figures.

• Is an accumulation of Western Zhou divinatory concepts. 

• During the Warring States Period, the text was re-interpreted as a system of cosmology and philosophy 

• Focused on the ideas of the dynamic balance of opposites, the evolution of events as a process, and acceptance of the inevitability of change.

• The heart of early Chinese philosophical thought, serving as a common ground for the Confucian and Taoist schools.

• I Ching had two distinct functions.
  • A compendium and classic of ancient cosmic principles.
  • Used as a divination text. In this case, used by marketplace fortune tellers and roadside oracles. These individuals served the illiterate peasantry.

Hexagrams

• 64 sets of the grid – many types.

• Each hexagram is accompanied with a description, often cryptic, akin to parables. Each line in every hexagram is also given a similar description.

• Article:  Explication de l'Arithmétique Binaire (1703) Gottfried Leibniz : he found in the hexagrams a base for claiming the universality of the binary numeral system.
  • Hexagrams possibly represented the binary sequences, so that ¦¦¦¦¦¦ would correspond to the binary sequence 000000 and ¦¦¦¦¦| would be 000001, and so forth.

Spring and Autumn Annals

Because it was traditionally regarded as having been compiled by Confucius (after a claim to this effect by Mencius), it was included as one of the Five Classics of Chinese literature.

• Formed by various chroniclers from the State of Lu.

• The scope of events recorded in the book is quite limited.

• The focus is on various feudal states' diplomatic relations, alliances and military actions, as well as births and deaths among the ruling families.

• The chronicle also takes note of natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes, locusts and solar eclipses.

• Events are narrated in chronological order, dated by the reign-year of the Duke of Lu, the season, the month and the day.

• The annalist structure is followed strictly, to the extent of listing the four seasons of each year even when no events are recorded.

• The style is terse and impersonal, and gives no clue as to the actual authorship!

Classic of Rites

• It described the social forms, governmental system, and ancient/ceremonial rites of the Zhou Dynasty (c. 1050–256 BCE).

• "The Burning of the Books." This occurred in 213 BCE when most traditional books were burned with the exception of books on war, medicine, astrology, agriculture, and divination.

• Some Confucian scholars had memorized the Classics and thus transmitted the Classics to their disciples who in turn recorded them in manuscripts.

• These disciples recorded each of the Classics from memory but the Classic of Music (Yuejing) could not be recompiled. However, a chapter in the Classic of Rites is the Record of Music (Yueji), which was derived from the lost Classic.

• The Classic of Rites was rewritten and edited by Confucius' disciples after the "Burning of the Books."

• Other scholars have attempted to shorten these scripts.
  • Dai De who reworked the text in the 1st Century BCE, reducing the original 214 books to 85.
  • Was later further reduced by his younger brother Dai Sheng to 46 books, to which three were added towards the end of the Han Dynasty, bringing the total to 49.

Classic of History

• The Classic of History was compiled between the 6th and 4th centuries BC, and reportedly included over 100 chapters.

• Many citations of its content can be found in the bamboo slips texts from the tombs of Guodian, in Hubei, dated to around 300 BC.

• Many copies of the work were destroyed in the Burning of Books during the Qin dynasty.

The book has four writing forms:

1. "codes" - the documentation of law codes and statutes;
2. "written admonitions" - the conversations between emperors and ministers and those between ministers, as well as prayers at sacrificial rituals;
3. "pledges" - the pledges made by emperors and vassals;
4. "mandates" - the imperial mandates emperors made when appointing officials or rewarding vassals.

• The language of these documents is quite archaic, closely resembling inscriptions found on Western Zhou bronzes.

Classic of Poetry

• The Odes provided founding principles in composition and rhyme that were patterned by Chinese writers for well over two thousand years, and are thus a seminal influence on Chinese Classical poetry.

• The Odes preserve the descriptions of daily life among the ancient Chinese culture of the Yellow River watershed.

• Many of the poems are about basic human problems such as love, marriage, work, and war.

• Although the Shijing does not specify the names of authors in association with the contained works we have hints.

• The Odes became an important and controversial force, influencing political, social and educational phenomena.

Copy of Powerpoint

Can be found here