Chinese classic texts or canonical texts (Chinese: t , s , p Zhongguó gudian dianjí) refers to the Chinese texts which originated before the imperial unification by the Qin dynasty in particularly the "Four Books and Five Classics" of the Neo-Confucian tradition, themselves a customary abridgment of the "Thirteen Classics". All of these pre-Qin texts were written in classical Chinese. All three canons are collectively known as the classics (t , s , jing, lit. "warp").