The course of study for the schools of China was formulated a long time ago and rigidly held to in all the schools of the empire. It was divided into three grades of instruction. The Chinese language does not have an alphabet but there is a different symbol for each word. In the first period the pupil was to learn the most important symbols, learning also to write them, and to commit to memory the nine sacred books, known as the Four Books and the Five Classics. The Four Books are known as the Confucian Analects, the Great Learning, the Golden Medium, and the Sayings of Mencius; and the Five Classics are the Book of Changes, the Book of History, the Spring and Autumn Annals, the Book of Odes, and the Book of Rites. All this would take four or five years on the part of the pupil. As these books were written in the old Chinese language they would not be understood by the pupils and the second stage of learning consisted in the translation of these books and classics into the language of the pupils, and also there were lessons in composition. The commentaries on these works were taken up and their meaning explained. In the third stage of learning composition was entered upon and consisted in the writing of essays and poems, imitating the style and thought of the five classics and the better commentaries. A full comprehension of the four books and the five classics and the commentaries upon them and the use of this knowledge in the writing of essays and poems was the desired end aimed at by the Chinese scholar and which was all that was needed for the highest examination in the empire. The methods of teaching with the Chinese were formal, being based upon methods handed down from the ages, so that all teachers taught in the one stereotyped way. In teaching reading the teacher would have the pupils come to his desk, stand in line, each holding his book open before him. The teacher would read aloud a line, the pupils would then read this in concert in a loud voice, and this would continue till the pupils could pronounce the line without the teacher's help. Then they would go to their seats and commit this line to memory, each shouting it out as loud as he could. "Every Chinese regards this shouting as an indispensable part of the child's education. If he is not shouting how can the teacher be sure that he is studying? and as studying and shouting are the same thing, when he is shouting there is nothing more to be desired."[100] When the pupil had learned the line, he would go to the teacher's desk, lay his book upon it, turn his back to the teacher, and shout out the line as rapidly as he possibly could do. This method gave to the Chinese the phrase "to back the book" as we have "to learn by heart." This method was continued till the whole book was committed to memory.