“Zhu Xi selected and grouped the Great Learning, the Discourses, the Book of Mengzi, and the Doctrine of the Mean, as the ‘Four Books,’ wrote commentaries on them, interpreted them in new lights, and made them the foundation of his social and ethical philosophy. From 1313 to 1905 the Four Books were the basis of the civil service examinations. As a result, they have exercised far greater influence on Chinese life and thought in the last six hundred years than any other Classic. ”