few years later, in 136 bce, he established the institution of the “Erudites of the Five Classics,” a group expert in the five texts that scholars of the Confucian school had begun to regard as their canonical works—the Book of Changes, the Book of Odes, the Book of History, the Book of Rites, and the Spring and Autumn Annals. These erudites served as his advisors, drawing on the teachings and principles in the Five Classics in counseling him. In 124 bce, these same erudites would become the teaching staff at the newly created Imperial Academy.
