Commentary on the Four Books
E504986
Commentary on the Four Books is Zhu Xi’s influential Neo-Confucian exegesis on the core Confucian classics that became the standard basis for civil service examinations in imperial China.
All labels observed (7)
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T5233068 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Commentary on the Four Books Context triple: [Zhu Xi, notableWork, Commentary on the Four Books]
-
A.
The Harmonization of the Opinions of the Two Sages
The Harmonization of the Opinions of the Two Sages is a philosophical treatise by Al-Farabi that seeks to reconcile and demonstrate the fundamental agreement between the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle.
-
B.
Guoyu
Guoyu is the official standardized form of the Chinese language used in mainland China and other Chinese-speaking regions.
-
C.
Book of the Eight Tones
The Book of the Eight Tones is a liturgical hymn book used in Eastern Christian worship that organizes chants according to eight musical modes.
-
D.
Siku Quanshu
Siku Quanshu is an enormous 18th-century Chinese imperial encyclopedia and library collection that systematically compiled, edited, and classified the major works of Chinese literature, history, philosophy, and classics.
-
E.
Analects
The Analects is a foundational Confucian text compiling sayings and dialogues of Confucius and his disciples that has profoundly shaped East Asian philosophy, ethics, and governance.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Commentary on the Four Books Target entity description: Commentary on the Four Books is Zhu Xi’s influential Neo-Confucian exegesis on the core Confucian classics that became the standard basis for civil service examinations in imperial China.
-
A.
The Harmonization of the Opinions of the Two Sages
The Harmonization of the Opinions of the Two Sages is a philosophical treatise by Al-Farabi that seeks to reconcile and demonstrate the fundamental agreement between the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle.
-
B.
Guoyu
Guoyu is the official standardized form of the Chinese language used in mainland China and other Chinese-speaking regions.
-
C.
Book of the Eight Tones
The Book of the Eight Tones is a liturgical hymn book used in Eastern Christian worship that organizes chants according to eight musical modes.
-
D.
Siku Quanshu
Siku Quanshu is an enormous 18th-century Chinese imperial encyclopedia and library collection that systematically compiled, edited, and classified the major works of Chinese literature, history, philosophy, and classics.
-
E.
Analects
The Analects is a foundational Confucian text compiling sayings and dialogues of Confucius and his disciples that has profoundly shaped East Asian philosophy, ethics, and governance.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Confucian commentary
ⓘ
Neo-Confucian text ⓘ philosophical work ⓘ |
| aimsTo |
harmonize classical texts with Neo-Confucian metaphysics
ⓘ
systematize Confucian doctrine ⓘ |
| alsoKnownAs |
Collected Commentaries on the Four Books
ⓘ
linked to:
Commentary on the Four Books
Sishu Jizhu ⓘ |
| associatedWith |
Cheng–Zhu school
ⓘ
linked to:
Cheng-Zhu school
|
| author |
Zhu Xi
ⓘ
Zhu Xi (1130–1200) ⓘ
linked to:
Zhu Xi
|
| becameStandardFor |
Ming dynasty civil service examinations
ⓘ
Qing dynasty civil service examinations ⓘ
linked to:
Chinese imperial examination system
|
| circulation | widely printed in woodblock editions ⓘ |
| commentaryOn |
Analects
ⓘ
Doctrine of the Mean ⓘ Four Books ⓘ Great Learning ⓘ Mencius ⓘ |
| componentWorkOf |
Zhu Xi’s collected works
ⓘ
linked to:
Commentary on the Four Books
|
| coreConcept |
investigation of things (gewu)
ⓘ
li (principle) ⓘ qi (material force) ⓘ self-cultivation ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | China ⓘ |
| dateWritten | 12th century ⓘ |
| dynasty |
Southern Song dynasty
ⓘ
linked to:
Song dynasty
|
| educationalRole | basic textbook for literati education ⓘ |
| genre | exegetical commentary ⓘ |
| historicalImportance | canonical interpretation of the Four Books in late imperial China ⓘ |
| inCanon |
Neo-Confucian canon
ⓘ
linked to:
Neo-Confucianism
|
| influenced |
Chinese civil service examinations
ⓘ
Japanese Confucianism ⓘ Korean Confucianism ⓘ Vietnamese Confucianism ⓘ |
| influencePeriod |
Ming dynasty
ⓘ
Qing dynasty ⓘ Yuan dynasty ⓘ |
| language | Classical Chinese ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
Confucian ethics
ⓘ
Confucian metaphysics ⓘ Confucian political philosophy ⓘ moral self-cultivation ⓘ |
| philosophicalTradition |
Confucianism
ⓘ
Neo-Confucianism ⓘ |
| relatedWork |
Zhu Xi’s Reflections on Things at Hand
ⓘ
linked to:
Commentary on the Four Books
Zhu Xi’s commentary on the Book of Changes ⓘ |
| titleInChinese | 四書集注 ⓘ |
| usedAs | standard examination text in imperial China ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Commentary on the Four Books Description of subject: Commentary on the Four Books is Zhu Xi’s influential Neo-Confucian exegesis on the core Confucian classics that became the standard basis for civil service examinations in imperial China.
Referenced by (9)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: Commentary on the Four Books
subject linked to:
Yuanhui
linked to: Commentary on the Four Books
linked to: Commentary on the Four Books
linked to: Commentary on the Four Books
linked to: Commentary on the Four Books
subject linked to:
Ziyang
linked to: Commentary on the Four Books
linked to: Commentary on the Four Books
linked to: Commentary on the Four Books