Four Books a group of Confucian texts including the Ta-hsüeh (Great Learning), Chung-Yung (Doctrine of the Mean), Lun Yü (Analects), and Meng Tzu (Book of Mencius), the latter two containing respectively the teachings of Confucius (sixth– fifth century B.C.) and Mencius (fourth century . .), and the former two being chapters from the Li-Chi (Book of Rites). Chu Hsi (1130–1200) selected the texts as basic ones for Confucian education, and wrote influential commentaries on them. The texts served as the basis of civil service examinations from 1313 to 1905; as a result, they exerted great influence both on the development of Confucian thought and on Chinese life in general. K.-l.S.