List of 50

Traditions Genre Total
Religious/
Foundational
Classics 		History Philosophy Literature
Hindu - Vedic / General 1. Rg Veda   23. Sankara 7. Mahabharata; 9. Ramayana; 14. Kalidasa 5
 Hindu - Bhakti     33. Ramanuja 24. Tiruvacakam 2
Jain     17. Umasvati   1
 Buddhist - S. Asian 4. Samyutta Nikaya   12. Nagarjuna   2
 Buddhist - E. Asian   26. Jingde Chuandenglu 20. Zhiyi   2
 Japanese       28. Genji Monogatari 1
Chinese - Daoist 13. Wang Bi   15. Zhuangzi Zhushu   2
Chinese - General / Confucian   8. Sima Qian; 30. Sima Guang 6. Xunzi; 34. Sishu Zhangju Jizhu  19. Wenxuan; 31. Su Shi; 39. Tangshi Pinhui  7
Greco-Roman    3. Herodotus 5. Plato 2. Iliad; 10. Aeneid 4
 Christian 11. Bible 16. Eusebius 18. Augustine; 40. Calvin   4
Pre-Islamic / Zoroastrian       22. Muallaqat; 27. Shahnama 2
 Islamic - General / Sunni 21. Quran 25. al-Tabari 29. Ibn Sina; 32. al-Ghazali   4
 Islamic -  CWANA Sufi     35. Ibn Arabi 36. Rumi 2
Islamic - S. Asian Sufi    41. Akbarnama   38. Amir Khusrau 2
 European - Romance     44. Descartes 37. Dante; 43. Cervantes 3
European - English    47. Gibbon 45. Locke 42. Shakespeare; 48. Austen 4
 European - German / Slavic     46. Kant; 50. Marx 49. Dostoevysky 3
Total 5 8 18 19 50

Several points where this list's selection actually differs from the List of 150:

 

12. Nagarjuna - the selection is Mulamadhyamakakarika. In the List of 150, its Tibetan commentary by Tsong Kha Ba is selected. In the shrinkage from 150 -> 50, Tibetan as a language with only one representative text is eliminated. 

 

15. Zhuangzi Zhushu - this is the version including the sub-commentary by the (religious) Daoist Cheng Xuanying. The change is to compensate for cutting all 4 religious Daoist texts in the List of 150.

 

44. Descartes - the text selected here is Discourses on Method in French of 1637, rather than Meditions on First Philosophy in Latin of 1641. Done to mitigate the under-representation of the French language.

 

49. Dostoevsky - the text selected is Brothers Karamazov. Selected instead of Tolstoy War and Peace. Intent is to also represent Russian Orthodox-inclined religious thoughts that is represented in the List of 150 by Solovyov.

 

It is very difficult to include in a list of 50 to include Plato and Aristotle at the same time!