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,

• Based on traditional Chinese accounts, its origins trace back to the 3rd to the 2nd millennium BC.

• Nowadays, 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 accretion of Western Zhou divinatory concepts. 

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

• It centred 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.

• Yin and yang are especially associated with the Taoists.

• 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!