Explore the foundational texts of Confucianism with this scholarly reader. It offers translations, classical Chinese glosses, and detailed commentary, optimized for a seamless reading experience on Apple devices. Unlock the full content with a one-time purchase.
1.11
October 30, 2026
• Book 2, Chapters 8–10: Our selections include seventeen of the most influential verses, among them the famous “Standing by a Stream” and “Stimulated by the Odes,” plus new encyclopedia entries. • Refined Page Style: Subtle touches throughout the page, with a finer commentary line, a crisper dinkus, and quieter link underlines. • Popover Glosses: The navigation arrows can now advance across sentence boundaries. • iPhone Duo: Optimized for the new foldable.
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The Four Books are the Great Learning, the Discourses of Confucius (the Analects), the Book of Mengzi (Mencius), and the Doctrine of the Mean. They form the traditional Confucian curriculum.
No, Four Books does not contain advertisements. The app is free to download and use with an optional in-app purchase for expanded content.
The Basic App includes 284 influential ancient verses with English translation only. It also features basic English-only search and an encyclopedia of ancient figures.
The Scholar Pack unlocks all 804 ancient verses, traditional commentary, classical Chinese language options, literal glosses, sentence-level parsing, advanced search, and an expanded encyclopedia.
Four Books is designed for iOS devices, including iPhone, iPad, and Apple Silicon Macs. It is not currently available on Android.
New verses are added to the app around the first of each month, indicating a commitment to regular content updates and refinement.
Four Books has an age rating of 4+, making it accessible for younger users interested in learning. However, the scholarly nature of the content may be more engaging for older learners.
Yes, Four Books is a small offline app, meaning you can access its content without an internet connection after downloading.
