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The Classic of Poetry, also Shijing or Shih-ching, translated variously as the Book of Songs, Book of Odes, or simply known as the Odes or Poetry (詩; Shī), is the oldest existing collection of Chinese poetry, comprising 305 works dating from the 11th to 7th centuries BC.
Confucius's moral system was based upon empathy and understanding others, rather than divinely ordained rules. To develop one's spontaneous responses of rén so that these could guide action intuitively was even better than living by the rules of yì. Confucius asserts that virtue is a mean between extremes.
A historical record of the State of Lu, Confucius's native state, 722–481 BC attributed to Confucius. The Classic of Music is sometimes considered the sixth classic but was lost. Up to the Western Han, authors would typically list the Classics in the order Poems-Documents-Rituals-Changes-Spring and Autumn.
Throughout the Analects, Confucius's students frequently request that Confucius define ren and give examples of people who embody it, but Confucius generally responds indirectly to his students' questions, instead offering illustrations and examples of behaviours that are associated with ren and explaining how a person could achieve it.
Chen Ziqin went away delighted and said: “I asked one thing, and learned three. I learned about the Poems, I learned about the ritual, and I learned how a gentleman maintains distance from his son.” [2] The story of Kong Li receiving teachings in poetry and rituals became a well-known tale passed down through generations.
The first four verses state the core credo of Confucianism, that is, that human nature is inherently good, as developed by Mencius, considered one of the most influential traditional Chinese philosophers after Confucius. [3] 人之初 (rén zhī chū) People at birth, 性本善 (xìng běn shàn) Are naturally good (kind-hearted).
Confucius himself was a ritual and sacrificial master. [51] Answering to a disciple who asked whether it is better to sacrifice to the god of the stove or to the god of the family (a popular saying), in 3.13 Confucius says that in order to appropriately pray to gods, one should first know and respect Heaven.
A longer version of the Documents was said to be discovered in the wall of Confucius's family estate in Qufu by his descendant Kong Anguo in the late 2nd century BC. This new material was referred to as " Old Script " ( gǔwén 古文 ), because they were written in the script that predated the standardization of Chinese script during the Qin.