Chinese literature

Ancient texts

• The Four Books (四书, Sì shū) are
• The Great Learning, (大学, Dà Xué).
• The Doctrine of the Golden Mean (中庸, Zhōng Yóng).
• The Analects of Confucius (论语, Lùn Yǔ), a book of pithy sayings attributed to Confucius.
• Mencius (孟子, Mèng Zǐ).
• The Five Classics (五经, Wǔ jīng) are
• The Classic of Poetry (诗经, Shī Jīng), made up of 305 poems.
• The Classic of History (书经, Shū Jīng) contains examples of early Chinese prose.
• The Book of Changes or I Ching (易经, Yì Jīng), a manual of divination based on the eight trigrams.
• The Classic of Rites (礼记, Lǐ Jì) describes ancient rites and court ceremonies.
• The Spring and Autumn Annals (春秋, Chūn Qiū).
• The Classic of Music (乐经) is sometime referred to as the sixth classic, but is lost.
• Other classics:
• The Classic of The Way and its Virtue or Tao Te Ching (道德经, Dao De Jing), attributed to Lao Zi.
• The True Classic of Perfect Emptiness, attributed to Lie Zi.
• The Classic of Filial Piety (孝经, Xiao Jing)
• The Three Character Classic
• Other ancient texts:
• Zhuang Zi
• The book of Xun Zi
• The Art of War (孙子兵法) by Sun Tzu