What do the four books mean? What do the Five Classics refer to?

The Four Books and Five Classics, collectively called the Four Books and Five Classics, are China Confucian classics. The four books refer to The Analects of Confucius, Mencius, Daxue and The Doctrine of the Mean. The Five Classics are The Book of Songs, Shangshu, Book of Rites, Zhouyi and Chunqiu. It's actually the Six Classics. Because Jing Yue died, there are only five classics left.

Braudel, a great French historian, once said, "Ninety percent of the world today is caused by the past. People only swing in a small range and think they are free and responsible. "

So, what makes us who we are today? There is no doubt that it is a civilization of the past, a classic that once shone.

Jaspers put forward the "Axis Age". In China, the symbol of axis civilization is Confucius and Mencius. The Four Books and Five Classics are all related to Confucius.

We feel that we have spent a long time with Confucius, but when we read The Analects, we will find that Confucius is not only clever, but also persuasive. We can still feel the admirable side of Confucius as a man without those myths.

Confucius' education of students is very different from today's. He never gives students a standard answer. For example, the word "benevolence" has appeared many times in the Analects of Confucius, and each time its meaning is different. Especially once his student Sima Niu asked about "benevolence", and he said half jokingly that "benevolent people also avoid it." Confucius told Sima Niu that doing things slowly is benevolent governance. In fact, he knows his students, and Sima Niu is reckless, so I hope Sima Niu can calm down and do things seriously.

When Confucius was poor, Lutz couldn't see the past and asked Confucius, "Is a gentleman poor?" Confucius said, "A gentleman is poor; The villain is rampant. " "The gentleman helps the poor" has actually become a means for later generations to promote poverty and happiness. In fact, we can know from the context that what Confucius wants to express is that there must be a bottom line in being a man. If there is no bottom line, what is the difference with a villain?

It is precisely because Confucius never gave a correct answer that it caused great trouble to future generations. They don't believe that Confucius, as a saint, didn't give a standard answer, so they divided into various factions and criticized each other, so that their thoughts became rigid.

"Learning without thinking is useless, thinking without learning is dangerous". In Confucius' view, learning thinking is the basic survival activity of human beings. Unfortunately, this survival activity seems to be forgotten by some people today.

What is the value of the four books and five classics? Classics have been handed down to this day and can be read from generation to generation. As far as itself is concerned, different people have learned different things through learning and thinking.