\tThe section of Confucian Classics (jingbu \u7ecf\u90e8) is the first of the four traditional categories (sibu \u56db\u90e8) into which Chinese literature was divided. The term jing \u7ecf "warp" designates a book with canonical claim, often written by representants of philosophical traditions or religious groups, like the Mojing \u58a8\u7ecf "Mohist canon”, Daodejing \u9053\u5fb7\u7ecf "Classic of the way and the virtue". Some other books with the title "classic" were called so in order to underline its importance and to attract a wider readership, like theShanhaijing \u5c71\u6d77\u7ecf, or the Chajing \u8336\u7ecf.<\/p>\n
\tA small group of books already obtained the status of a common classic during the late Western Zhou period \u897f\u5468 (11th cent.- 770 BCE; Shangshu\u5c1a\u4e66, Shijing \u8bd7\u7ecf, Yijing \u6613\u7ecf). The Confucians as experts on history and rituals "occupied" these classics and compiled a canon of Six Classics(liujing \u516d\u7ecf: Yi \u6613 "Changes", i.e. divination, Shu \u4e66 "Documents", Shi \u8bd7 "Songs", Li \u793c "Rituals", Yue \u4e50 "Music", and Chunqiu \u6625\u79cb "Historiography"), each representing a style of literature and a field of ritual activity. Later on, other Confucian writings were included in this canon, resulting in the corpus of 13 Classics (shisanjing \u5341\u4e09\u7ecf) from the Southern Song period \u5357\u5b8b (1127-1279) on.<\/p>\n
\tThe Daoists also called their important writings jing, and the Buddhistsused the word jing to translate the Sanskrit word s\u016btra "teaching" (literally: chain, thread [of sermons]). In Chinese literature the word jing is contrasted with the word wei \u7eac "weft", which designates a writing of less paramount status but useable as an explanation to the classics or an alternative interpretation of ideas.<\/p>\n
\tExcept the Five Classics (wujing \u6b66\u7ecf) Yijing, Shangshu, Shijing, Liji andChunqiu the section of Confucian Classics includes the "Confucian Analects" Lunyu \u8bba\u8bed, a collection of sayings by Confucius, the classic on filial piety Xiaojing \u5b5d\u7ecf, three books on rituals and etiquette (Liji \u793c\u8bb0, Yili\u4eea\u793c, Zhouli \u5468\u793c), three canonized commentaries to the Chunqiu(Zuozhuan \u5de6\u4f20, Gongyangzhuan \u516c\u7f8a\u4f20, Guliangzhuan \u8c37\u6881\u4f20), and the book Mengzi \u5b5f\u5b50. The canonized gloss book Erya \u5c14\u96c5 is included in thesection on lexicography. The books Lunyu, Mengzi, Zhongyong and Daxuehave been assembled to the corpus of the "Four Books" (sishu \u56db\u4e66). The section of the ritual books includes six parts, one for each of the three books, books commenting all three of them (sanli zongyi \u4e09\u793c\u603b\u4e49), books on all kinds of rituals (tongli \u901a\u793c) and miscellaneous books on rites (za lishu \u6742\u793c\u4e66). The sequence of the classics has practically never changed over time.<\/p>\n
\tBecause there was probably never a physical classic on music, books on music were, apart from a few exceptions, from the Song period on distributed into other categories. The compilers of the imperialcollectaneum Siku quanshu \u56db\u5e93\u5168\u4e66 added a vast amount of commentaries and interpretations to the classics in this sections, as well as four sub-classics, the Shangshu dazhuan \u5c1a\u4e66\u5927\u4f20, Hanshi waizhuan \u97e9\u8bd7\u5916\u4f20, Da Dai liji \u5927\u6234\u793c\u8bb0 and Chunqiu fanlu \u6625\u79cb\u7e41\u9732. The Yijing section includes 169 books, the Shangshu section 57, the Shijing section 62, the whole section on ritual books 83 books, the section on the Chunqiu 114 books, that on the Xiaojing 11 books, books commenting all the Five Classics 32, and those on the Four Books 62. The category of the Confucian Classics also includes the books of the so-called "minor learning" (xiaoxue \u5c0f\u5b66) which mainly includes lexicographic books and dictionaries.<\/p>\n