List of 100

No. Title

Author or

Compiler

Date Used
for Ordering
1 Rg Veda   1000 B.C.
2 Iliad Homer  750 B.C.
3 Histories Herodotus 425 B.C.
4 Theban Plays Sophocles 405 B.C.
5 Samyutta Nikaya   400 B.C.
6 Peloponnesian Wars Thucydides 395 B.C.
7 Complete Works Plato 347 B.C.
8 Metaphysics Aristotle 322 B.C.
9 Xunzi Xunzi 238 B.C.
10 Mozi Mozi 221 B.C.
11 Chunqiu Fanlu Dong Zhongshu 115 B.C.
12 Arthasastra Kautilya 100 B.C.
13 Mahabharata   100 B.C.
14 Shiji Sima Qian 86 B.C.
15 Ramayana   50 B.C.
16 Aeneid Virgil  19 B.C. 
17 Metamorphoses Ovid 8 A.D.
18 History of Rome Livy 14
19 Buddhacarita Asvaghosa 90
20 Bible   150
21 Vimalakirtinirdesasutra   150
22 Manava Dharmasastra   200
23 On First Principles Origen 215 
24 Commentaries on Zhouyi and Laozi  Wang Bi 249
25 Yogasutra Patanjali 300
26 Works Kalidasa 300
27 Zhuangzi Zhushu Cheng Xuanying 312
28 Church History Eusebius 313
29 Pancatantra   320
30 Baopuzi Ge Hong 333
31 Tattvathasutra/bhasya  Umasvati 400
32 On the Trinity Augustine 426
33 Shishuo Xinyu Liu Yiqing 444
34 Sattasai Hala 450
35 Mahavamsa   450
36 Works Pseudo-Dionysius Aeropagite 500
37 Wenxuan Xiao Tong 531
38 Fahua Xuanyi Zhiyi (Guanding) 601
39 Quran Muhammed (reciter) 632
40 Dacheng Qixinlun Shuji Wonhyo (=Yuanxiao) 660
41 Muallaqat   661
42 Brahmasutrabhasya Sankara 710
43 Tongdian Du You 801
44 Diwan Abu Nuwas 814
45 Sahih al-Bukhari al-Bukhari 843
46 Tiruvacakam Manikkavachakar 900
47 Tarikh al-Tabari al-Tabari 923
48 Nyayakusumanjali Udayana 984
49 Jingde Chuandenglu Dao Yuan 1007
50 Shahnama Ferdowsi 1010
51 Genji Monogatari Murasaki Shikibu 1014
52 al-Shifa Ibn Sina 1027
53 Zizhi Tongjian Sima Guang 1084
54 Kashf al-Mahjub Hujwiri 1088
55 Dongpo Quanji Su Shi 1101
56 Revival of Religious Sciences al-Ghazali 1111
57 Bhagavadgitabhasya Ramanuja 1120
58 Maqamat al-Hariri al-Hariri 1122
59 Chongyang Quanzhenji Wang Zhe 1170
60 Guide for the Perplexed Musa ibn Maymum (Maimonides) 1188
61 Gita Govinda Jayadeva 1190
62 Sishu Zhangju Jizhu Zhuxi 1200
63 Kyogyoshinsho Shinran 1224
64 Meccan Revelations Ibn Arabi 1238
65 Huaan Cixuan Huang Sheng 1249
66 Masnavi Rumi 1273
67 Summa Theologica Thomas Aquinas 1274
68 Jami al-Tawarikh Rashiduddin 1316
69 Commedia Dante 1321
70 Works Amir Khusrau 1325
71 Triads Gregory Palamas 1341
72 Divan Hafez 1390
73 Tangshi Pinhui Gao Bing 1398
74 Cantebury Tales  Chaucer 1400
75 Ocean of Reasoning Commentary on Mulamadhyamakakarika Tsong Kha Ba 1408
76 The Prince Machiavelli 1513
77 Three Treatises of 1520 Luther 1520
78  Seonghaksipdo Yi Hwang 1568
79 Lusiads Luis de Camoens 1572
80 Essays Montaigne 1592
81 Adi Granth   1604
82 First Folio Shakespeare 1613
83 Don Quixote Cervantes 1615
84 al-Asfar Mulla Sadra 1630
85 Meditations on First Philosophy Descartes 1641 
86 Paradise Lost Milton 1674 
87 Mingru Xuean Huang Zongxi 1676 
88 Two Treatises on Government Locke 1689
89 Tarikh-i Naima Mustafa Naima 1704 
90 Essay on Manners Voltaire 1756
91 Shitou Ji Cao Xueqin 1763
92 Critique of Pure Reason Kant 1787
93 Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Gibbon 1788
94 Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen 1813
95 Faust  Goethe 1832
96 Pan Tadeusz Mickiewicz 1832
97 On Liberty J.S. Mill 1859
98 Divan Ghalib 1869
99 Brothers Karamazov Dostoevsky 1880
100 Das Capital Marx 1883

After much thoughts, I decide to just give a simple sequential list - if there is a world canon at all, maybe it is good that sometimes it is presented as a simple list, not separated by genre, tradition, language, region of composition, or any other aspects that effectively divides up the world. The only data I provide is the date I used for ordering. 

 

The list was developed in April 2012, and unchanged since then. For the methodology of developing this list, and what it left out vs. the List of 150, you can refer to my blog post here.