Four Books - Shisho

The four classics of Confucianism are "The Great Learning", "The Analects", "Mencius", and "The Doctrine of the Mean". Zhu Xi (Zhu Xi) took the "Great Learning" and "The Doctrine of the Mean" chapters from the "Book of Rites" and wrote "The Great Learning" and "The Doctrine of the Mean" chapters, and wrote "Collected Commentaries on the Analects" and "Collected Commentaries on Mencius" as the core of his teachings. Following his own commentary, he began with "The Great Learning", which is "the gate to entering the virtue of beginners", proceeded to "The Analects" and "Mencius", and reached "The Doctrine of the Mean", which describes the mental methods since Confucius (Kongqiu), and then instructed to study the Six Classics (Five Classics). This order of study is based on the difficulty of the books, and does not neglect the Five Classics, but instead of the traditional Five Classics-centered study, Neo-Confucianism shifted the emphasis of the classics to the Four Books. As Neo-Confucianism became more widespread, questions on the civil servant qualification exam (Imperial Examination) in the mid-Yuan dynasty were mainly based on Neo-Confucian interpretations of the Four Books and one of the Five Classics, and in the Ming and Qing dynasties, it was stipulated that the exam should be based exclusively on Neo-Confucian interpretations. In the Ming dynasty, the "Four Books Encyclopedia," a compilation of Neo-Confucian theories on the Four Books from the Song and Yuan dynasties, was compiled and distributed, and it maintained the authority of a national textbook as the standard for answers in the Imperial Examination. The philosophical theories of the Yuan and Ming dynasties were often based on the Four Books, and the theories of the original Ming dynasty thinker Wang Yangming (Shujin) were also derived from new interpretations of the Four Books. From the mid-Ming dynasty onwards, new interpretations of the Four Books that introduced Yangmingism and Buddhist thought appeared, and the authority of the chapters, verses and commentaries and the Complete Works declined, and the answers to the imperial examinations were sometimes not based on them. In the Qing dynasty, an academic style that valued the Five Classics emerged again, and the status of the Four Books declined, but the chapters, verses and commentaries of the Four Books were still given importance in the imperial examinations. In Japan, from the Neo-Confucian commentaries to the Ming dynasty commentaries, they were widely read during the Edo period, and many Japanese-printed books were published.

[Koji Sano]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

『大学』『論語』『孟子(もうし)』『中庸(ちゅうよう)』の儒教の四経典。朱子（朱熹(しゅき)）は『礼記(らいき)』の大学篇(へん)、中庸篇を取り出して『大学章句』『中庸章句』を書き、『論語集註(しっちゅう)』『孟子集註』を書いて教説の中核に据えた。そして自らの注釈に従って「初学の徳に入るの門」の『大学』に始まり、『論語』『孟子』と進み、孔子（孔丘）以来の心法を記載する『中庸』に至り、そののちに六経（五経）を学べと指示した。この学習順序は書籍の難易という点からいわれており、五経を軽視するものではないが、旧来の五経中心の学問にかわって朱子学では四書中心へと経書の比重が移動することになった。朱子学の普及に伴い、元(げん)代中期には官吏資格試験（科挙(かきょ)）では四書と、五経のうちの一書について朱子学的解釈を主とする出題が課され、明清(みんしん)代ではもっぱら朱子学的解釈によると規定された。明代には宋元(そうげん)の朱子学的四書説を集成した『四書大全』が編纂(へんさん)頒布され、科挙の解答基準として国定教科書的な権威を保つようになった。元明代の思想学説は四書に基づくことが多く、明代の独創的思想家王陽明(ようめい)（守仁(しゅじん)）の学説も四書の新解釈から得られている。明代中期以降には陽明学や仏教思想を導入した四書の新解釈が現れ、章句・集註や大全の権威は低下し、科挙の答案はこれによらないこともあった。清代にはふたたび五経を重んずる学風が現れ、四書の地位は低下したが、科挙ではやはり四書章句・集註が重視された。わが国では江戸時代に朱子学的注釈から明代の注釈に至るまでよく読まれ、和刻本も多量に出版されている。

［佐野公治］

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