The following article is taken from the book "Common Knowledge About Chinese Cultural"
“Four Books” (Si Shu) came into existence before the Qin Dynasty. The Analects of Confucius (Lun Yu), one of the Four Books, is a collection of words and deeds of Confucius. The other three are Mencius (Mengzi), The Great Learning (Da Xue) and The Doctrine of the Mean (Zhong Yong). Mencius recorded the political thought of Master Meng Ke (Mengzi) who was another prominent figure of Confucianism. The Great Learning and The Doctrine of the Mean are two chapters from the corpus of The Records of Rites (Li Ji) originally. They are the collections of treatises on the rules of propriety and ceremonial usages. Zhu Xi, the well-known scholar of the Southern Song Dynasties, offered elaborate comments on the two books. Together with The Analects of Confucius and Mencius, they were called The Collected Notes on Passages in the Four Books, commonly known as “Four Books”. They were regarded as the elementary textbooks for Confucianism study. Five Classics refer to five ancient classics: The Book of Changes (Yi Jing), The Book of Documents (Shang Shu), The Book of Poetry (Shi Jing), The Records of the Rites (Li Ji) and The Spring and Autumn Annals (Chun Qiu).
In the dynasties of Ming and Qing, the sentences from “Four Books and Five Classics” were the basis for the Imperial Examinations. Examinees had to explain them according to The Collected Notes on Passage in the Four Books. Therefore, “Four Books and Five Classics” became the most important textbooks for scholars of the time. Then the Confucian thought of “Four Books and Five Classics” became the guideline of behavior. Furthermore, as the most important ancient corpus of China, it still has great influence on the current generation.
以下文章擷取自"中國文化常識"一書
「四書」在先秦時期就存在了，其中除了記錄孔子言行的《論語》之外， 還有《孟子》、《大學》和《中庸》。 《孟子》是記述儒家學派另外一位代表人物孟軻的政治思想的書。而《大學》與《中庸》本來是《禮記》裡的兩篇文章，主要是講如何做學問和如何修身的，到南宋時，著名學者朱熹把它們分別獨立出來加以註解，和《論語》 、《孟子》一起，作為學習儒家經典的初級入門教材，叫做《四書章句集注》，也簡稱「四書」。 「五經」指《易經》、《尚書》、《詩經》、《禮記》和《春秋》五部典籍。
明清時期，科舉考試都是根據 「四書五經」裡面的文句出題，考生對字句的解釋必須依照朱熹的《四書章句集註》等。於是，「四書五經」 成為知識分子最重要的教科書，而 「四書五經」 中的儒家思想也主要透過這樣的方式成為當時人們為人處世的準則。 「四書五經」 中蘊涵的思想也深深地影響著現在的人們。