\tThe Liji \u793c\u8bb0 "Book of rites" is a collection of descriptions of ritual matters written during the late Warring States \u6218\u56fd (5th cent.-221 BCE) andFormer Han \u524d\u6c49 (206 BCE-8 CE) periods. It is one of the Five Confucian Classics (wujing \u4e94\u7ecf) and one of the three ritual classics (sanli \u4e09\u793c). During the Former Han period books on ritual matters with a length of 131 chapters were brought together, one by the Confucian scholar Dai De \u6234\u5fb7 (Dai Senior \u5927\u6234) who compiled a collection of 85 chapters (called Da Dai Liji \u5927\u6234\u793c\u8bb0 "Ritual book by Dai Senior"), and one by his nephew Dai Sheng\u6234\u5723, with a length of 49 chapters, which was accordingly called the Xiao Dai Liji \u5c0f\u6234\u793c\u8bb0 "Ritual book by Dai Junior". At the end of the Later Han period \u540e\u6c49 (25-220 CE) the book of Dai De ceased to be taught at theNational University (taixue \u592a\u5b66) and was overshadowed by the compilation of Dai Sheng which then became the orthodox classic on rituals, together with the Yili \u4eea\u793c and the Zhouli \u5468\u793c. Its status as a classic was enhanced by the fact that the Confucian scholar Zheng Xuan \u90d1\u7384 wrote a commentary to Dai Sheng's Liji. Some of the chapters are similar in content to the Yili, like the capping or marriage ceremonies, but others are not contained in the Yili classic, like mourning clothes (sangfu \u4e27\u670d) and the ritual game of pitch-pot (touhu \u6295\u58f6). The Liji also contains some general chapters on Confucian ritual thinking, like the conveyance or rituals (Liyun\u793c\u8fd0), ritual music (Yueji \u4e50\u8bb0), or studies (Xueji \u5b66\u8bb0). The chapter Yueling\u6708\u4ee4 is not directly "Confucian" but describes the proceedings of the government in the different months from the viewpoint of early Chinese cosmological thinking. The traditional shape of Chinese government is described in the chapter Wangzhi \u738b\u5236. The chapter Yueji has been interpreted by some scholars as the often-mentioned but actually never identified sixth Confucian classic (of the Six Classics Liuyi \u516d\u827a), namely that on ritual music. Two chapters have been extracted during the Song period \u5b8b (960-1279): the Zhongyong \u4e2d\u5eb8 "Doctrine of the Mean" and theDaxue \u5927\u5b66 "Great Learning". These two book became part of the so-called "Four Books" (sishu \u56db\u4e66).<\/p>\n
\tThe famous Tang period \u5510 (618-907) scholar Kong Yingda \u5b54\u9896\u8fbe has written an 80 juan "scrolls" long commentary, the Liji zhengyi \u793c\u8bb0\u6b63\u4e49. During the Song period it was merged with Zheng Xuan's commentary to the Liji zhushu \u793c\u8bb0\u6ce8\u758f\uff0c in 63 juan. At the same time Wei Shi \u536b\u6e5c wrote the a collection of commentaries, the Liji jishuo \u793c\u8bb0\u96c6\u8bf4, in 150 juan. A book with the same title was compiled with by the Yuan period \u5143 (1279-1368) scholar Chen Gao \u9648\u6f94, but only 10 juan long, which was again extended by the Ming period \u660e (1368-1644) scholar Hu Guang \u80e1\u5e7f to the book Liji daquan \u793c\u8bb0\u5927\u5168. The most important Qing period \u6e05 (1644-1911) commentary is Hang Shijun's \u676d\u4e16\u9a8f Xu Weishi Liji jishuo \u7eed\u536b\u6c0f\u793c\u8bb0\u96c6\u8bf4, in 100 juan. A lot of commentators dealt with particular chapters of the Liji, like the Ming period commentator Huang Daozhou \u9ec4\u9053\u5468 (Yueling mingyi\u6708\u4ee4\u660e\u4e49, Ziji jizhuan \u7f01\u8863\u96c6\u4f20) or the Qing period scholar Shao Taiqu \u90b5\u6cf0\u8862 (Tangong yiwen \u6a80\u5f13\u7591\u95ee).<\/p>\n
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