Editing Chinese classics (section)

== Western Han dynasty ==
===Five Classics===
The '''Five Classics''' ({{zhi|t=五經|p=Wǔjīng}}) are five pre-Qin texts that became part of the state-sponsored curriculum during the [[Western Han dynasty]], which adopted Confucianism as its official ideology. It was during this period that the texts first began to be considered together as a set collection, and to be called collectively the "Five Classics".<ref>Nylan, Michael. [https://web.archive.org/web/20131029205031/http://yalepress.yale.edu/YupBooks/pdf/0300081855.pdf (Internet Archive Copy) ''The Five "Confucian" Classics'']. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001.</ref> Several of the texts were already prominent by the [[Warring States period]], but the literature culture at the time did not lend itself to clear boundaries between works, so a high degree of variance between individual witnesses of the same title was common, as well as considerable intertextuality and cognate chapters between different titles. [[Mencius]], the leading Confucian scholar of the time, regarded the ''Spring and Autumn Annals'' as being equally important as the semi-legendary chronicles of earlier periods.

;''[[Classic of Poetry]]''
:A collection of 305 poems divided into 160 folk songs, 105 festal songs sung at court ceremonies, and 40 hymns and eulogies sung at sacrifices to heroes and ancestral spirits of the royal house. 
;''[[Book of Documents]]''
:A collection of documents and speeches alleged to have been written by rulers and officials of the early Zhou period and before. It is possibly the oldest Chinese narrative, and may date from the 6th century BC. It includes examples of early Chinese prose.
;''[[Book of Rites]]''
:Describes ancient rites, social forms and court ceremonies. The version studied today is a re-worked version compiled by scholars in the third century BC rather than the original text, which is said to have been edited by Confucius himself. 
;''[[I Ching]]''
:The book contains a [[divination]] system comparable to Western [[geomancy]] or the West African [[Ifá]] system.{{cn|date=April 2024}} In Western cultures and modern East Asia, it is still widely used for this purpose.
;''[[Spring and Autumn Annals]]''
:A historical record of the [[State of Lu]], Confucius's native state, 722–481&nbsp;BC.

Up to the Western Han, authors would typically list the Classics in the order Poems-Documents-Rituals-Changes-Spring and Autumn. However, from the Eastern Han the default order instead became Changes-Documents-Poems-Rituals-Spring and Autumn.


===Han imperial library===
[[File:Liu Xiang (Han scholar).PNG|thumb|The Han-era scholar [[Liu Xiang (scholar)|Liu Xiang]] edited the text of many Chinese classical works such as the ''[[Book of Rites]]'', and compiled the ''[[Biographies of Exemplary Women]]''.]]

In 26 BCE, at the command of the emperor, [[Liu Xiang (scholar)|Liu Xiang]] (77–6&nbsp;BC{{sfn|Twitchett|Loewe|1986|p=192}}) compiled the first catalogue of the imperial library, the ''Abstracts'' ({{zhi|first=t|t=別錄|s=别录|p=Bielu}}), and is the first known editor of the ''[[Classic of Mountains and Seas]]'', which was finished by his son.<ref>E.L. Shaughnessy, ''Rewriting Early Chinese Texts'', pp. 2–3.</ref> Liu also edited collections of stories and biographies, the ''[[Biographies of Exemplary Women]]''.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Reading ''Lienüzhuan'' (''Biographies of Women'') through the life of Liu Xiang |first=Bret |last=Hinsch |journal=Journal of Asian History |volume=39 |number=2 |year=2005 |pages=129–157 |jstor=41933413 |publisher=Harrassowitz}}</ref> He has long erroneously been credited with compiling the ''[[Biographies of the Immortals]]'', a collection of Taoist hagiographies and hymns.<ref name="lxzck">{{citation |contribution-url=http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Daoists/liexianzhuan.html |contribution=Liexianzhuan |title=China Knowledge |url=http://www.chinaknowledge.de |last=Theobald |first=Ulrich |date=24 July 2010 |location=Tübingen}}.</ref>{{better source needed|date=April 2024}} Liu Xiang was also a poet, being credited with the "[[Nine Laments]]" that appears in the ''[[Chu Ci]]''.<ref>Hawkes, 280</ref>

The works edited and compiled by Liu Xiang include:
{{columns-list|colwidth=35em|
*''[[Book of Documents]]''
*''[[Classic of Rites]]''{{sfn|Riegel|1993|p=295}}
*''[[Classic of Filial Piety]]''{{sfn|Boltz|1993b|p=144}}
*''[[Yi Zhou Shu]]''{{sfn|Shaughnessy|1993b|p=239}}
*''[[Strategies of the Warring States]]''{{sfn|Tsien|1993|p=1}}
*''[[Analects]]''{{sfn|Cheng|1993|p=315}}
*''[[Xunzi (book)|Xunzi]]''{{sfn|Loewe|1993b|p=178}}
*''[[Shen Dao#Text|Shenzi]]''{{sfn|Thompson|1993|p=400}}
*''[[Zhuangzi (book)|Zhuangzi]]'' 
*''[[Liezi]]''{{sfn|Barrett|1993|p=299}}
*''[[Huainanzi]]''{{sfn|Le Blanc|1993|p=190}}
*''[[Guanzi (text)|Guanzi]]''{{sfn|Rickett|1993|p=246}}
*''[[Yanzi Chunqiu]]''{{sfn|Durrant|1993|p=484}}
*''[[Shuoyuan]]''{{sfn|Knechtges|1993c|p=443}} (initial compilation)
*''[[Xinxu]]'' ({{lang|zh|新序}}; ''New Prefaces''){{sfn|Nylan|1993b|p=155}} (authorship)
}}

This work was continued by his son, [[Liu Xin (scholar)|Liu Xin]], who finally completed the task after his father's death. The transmitted corpus of these classical texts all derives from the versions edited down by Liu Xiang and Liu Xin. Michael Nylan has characterised the scope of the Liu pair's editing as having been so vast that it affects our understanding of China's pre-imperial period to the same degree as the Qin unification does.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Nylan |first=Michael |title="Empire" in the Classical Era in China (304 BC–AD 316) |journal=Oriens Extremus |volume=46 |year=2007 |pages=48–83 |publisher=Harrassowitz |jstor=24047664}}</ref>{{rp|51}}