Commentaries on the Four Books

Introduction

Zhu Xi’s “Collected Commentaries on the Four Books, by chapter and phrase” brought together the Analects, the Mengzi and two short chapters from the Book of Rites, the Great Learning and the Doctrine of the Mean. He rearranged the Great Learning and added a passage of his own on the “investigation of things”. He set an order of study: first the Great Learning as the outline, then the Analects, the Mengzi and finally the Doctrine of the Mean. The commentaries interpret the texts through his theory of principle (li) and vital stuff (qi), and Zhu kept revising them until his death in 1200.

Connections

Builds on

• Analects (Lunyu)c. 450 BCE · Confucius
• Mengzic. 300 BCE · Mengzi (Mencius)

Taken up in

• Ten Diagrams on Sage Learning1568 · Yi Hwang
• The Essentials of Sage Learning (Seonghak jibyo)1575 · Yi I (Yulgok)

Criticized in

• Instructions for Practical Living (Chuanxi lu)1518 · Wang Yangming
• The Meanings of Terms in the Analects and Mencius (Gomō jigi)1683 · Itō Jinsai
• Evidential Commentary on the Meanings of Terms in the Mengzi1777 · Dai Zhen