The Five Classics (��; "Wǔjīng") are five Chinese books that were written before the Qin dynasty. They are part of the traditional Confucian canon. Several of the books were already well-known by the Warring States period. Mencius, the main Confucian scholar at that time, thought that the "Spring and Autumn Annals" were just as important as the very well-known books written in earlier periods. During the Western Han dynasty, which used Confucianism as its official ideology, these books became part of the state-sponsored curriculum. During this time period, people started to think of these books as belonging together in a set, and to call them the "Five Classics". The Five Classics are: