The Promotion Of The Four Books' Position Among The Confucian Classics Between The Tang And Song Dynasty

The Four Books, which deeply affected the character and psychology of Chinese people, were the most famous classics in the traditional Chinese culture. However, the Four Books were not very important among the Confucian classics before the Northern Song Dynasty. It was after the Song Dynasty that the position of the Four Books became more and more important. Therefore, there still were some problems to be solved. Was there one promotion of the Four Books' position among the Confucian classics between the Tang and Song Dynasty? If so, how did it happen? What were the reasons of the promotion? And what was the meaning of the promotion in the history of Chinese philosophy? The four problems formed the four parts of the dissertation correspondingly.In the first part, the thesis simply narrates the position of the Four Books among the Confucian classics before the Northern Song Dynasty. We discovered that the Four Books were neither the very important nor a complete systematic. Consequently, there must be one promotion of the Four Books' position among the Confucian classics.In the second part, the thesis discusses the promotion of the Four Books' position thoroughly and completely .The whole course consists of four stages: rudiment, rise, prosperity, and accomplishment. After the middle Tang Dynasty, Han Yu, Li Ao, Pi Rixiu etc. initiated not only the reviving movement of the Confucianism but also the promotion's beginning of the Four Books' position. It was the first stage. Afterwards, It was in the beginning of the Northern Song Dynasty that some emperors and the Confucian scholars such as Xing Bing, Fan Zhongyan and Ouyang Xiu incessantly pushed the development of the promotion. In the third stage, some famous Confucian scholars such as Zhou Dunyi, Zhang Zai, Cheng Hao, Cheng Yi and Wang Anshi promoted the Four Books' position. At the last stage, the famous Confucian scholars, Zhu Xi published the Annotation of the Four Books that established the promotion of the Four Books' position among the Confucian classicsIn the third part, the thesis analyzes the reasons of the promotion. It argues that the development of the Chinese feudal society between the Tang and Song Dynastyinformed the inevitability of the promotion, furthermore, the character of the Four Books made it possible.At last, the thesis clarifies that the course of the promotion of the Four Books' position among the Confucian classics kept the same steps with the changing position of Confucianism from the Han and Tang Dynasty to the Song and Ming Dynasty. The author analyzes the course of the Confucianism's evolution and the function of the Four Books during the course.