The Four Books: The Basic Teachings of the Later Confucian Tradition
In this engaging volume, Daniel Gardner explains the way in  which the Four Books --Great Learning,Analects,Mencius, andMaintaining Perfect Balance-- have been read  and understood by the Chinese since the twelfth century.  Selected passages  in translation are accompanied by Gardner's comments, which incorporate  selections from the commentary and interpretation of the renowned  Neo-Confucian thinker, Zhu Xi (1130-1200).This study provides an ideal introduction to the basic texts in the  Confucian tradition from the twelfth through the twentieth centuries.  It  guides the reader through Zhu Xi's influential interpretation of the Four  Books, showing how Zhu, through the genre of commentary, gave new coherence  and meaning to these foundational texts.  Since the Four Books with Zhu  Xi's commentary served as the basic "textbook" for Chinese schooling and  the civil service examinations for more than seven hundred years, this book  illustrates as well the nature of the standard Chinese educational  curriculum.