Thirteen Classics
| Thirteen Classics | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese name | |||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | Shi San Jing | ||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | Shi San Jing | ||||||||||
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| Vietnamese name | |||||||||||
| Vietnamese alphabet | Thap tam kinh | ||||||||||
| Chu Han | Shi San Jing | ||||||||||
| Korean name | |||||||||||
| Hangul | sibsamgyeong | ||||||||||
| Hanja | Shi San Jing | ||||||||||
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| Japanese name | |||||||||||
| Kanji | Shi San Jing | ||||||||||
| Kana | ziyuusangiyou | ||||||||||
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The Thirteen Classics (traditional Chinese: Shi San Jing ; simplified Chinese: Shi San Jing ; pinyin: Shisan Jing) is a term for the group of thirteen classics of Confucian tradition that became the basis for the Imperial Examinations during the Song dynasty and have shaped much of East Asian culture and thought.[1] It includes all of the Four Books and Five Classics but organizes them differently and includes the Classic of Filial Piety and Erya.
List
[edit]The classics are:
- Classic of Changes or I Ching (Yi Jing Yijing)
- Book of Documents (Shu Jing Shujing)
- Classic of Poetry (Shi Jing Shijing)
- The Three Ritual Classics (San Li Sanli)
- Rites of Zhou (Zhou Li Zhouli)
- Ceremonies and Rites (Yi Li Yili)
- Book of Rites (Li Ji Liji)
- The Three Commentaries on the Spring and Autumn Annals
- The Commentary of Zuo (Zuo Chuan Zuozhuan)
- The Commentary of Gongyang (Gong Yang Chuan Gongyang Zhuan)
- The Commentary of Guliang (Gu Liang Chuan Guliang Zhuan)
- The Analects (Lun Yu Lunyu)
- Classic of Filial Piety (Xiao Jing Xiaojing)
- Erya (Er Ya Erya), a dictionary and encyclopedia
- Mencius (Meng Zi Mengzi)
History
[edit]The tradition of a defined group of "classics" in Chinese culture dates at least to the Warring States period, when the Zhuangzi has Confucius telling Laozi "I have studied the six classics--the Odes, the Documents, the Rites, the Music, the Changes, and the Spring and Autumn Annals".[2] These six works were thus already considered classics by at least the 3rd century BC, although the Classic of Music did not survive the chaos of the Qin unification of China and was deemed lost during the Han dynasty. The remaining Five Classics were traditionally considered to have been edited by Confucius. Records from the late Han and Three Kingdoms period reference "seven classics", though they do not name them individually. By the Tang dynasty references to "nine classics" were common, though the nine works themselves vary depending on the source. The Kaicheng Stone Classics (833-837) comprise twelve works (all the above except the Mencius). By the time of the Southern Song dynasty, the number and specific books in the "thirteen classics" were universally established. The Thirteen Classics formed the texts used in the Imperial examinations, and their 600,000+ characters, in effect words, were generally required to be memorized in order to pass.
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Wilkinson, Endymion (2000). Chinese history: a manual (2nd ed.). Harvard Univ Asia Center. pp. 475-476. ISBN 978-0-674-00249-4.
- ^ Zhuangzi, chapter 14, quoted in Lewis, Mark Edward (1999). Writing and authority in early China. SUNY Press. p. 276. ISBN 978-0-7914-4114-5.
Further reading
[edit]- Goldin, Paul R. (2001). "The Thirteen Classics". In Mair, Victor H. (ed.). The Columbia History of Chinese Literature. New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 86-96. ISBN 0-231-10984-9.
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