Four Books include: Great Learning, Doctrine of the

          Mean, Analects, Mengzi (Mencius). Zhi Xi was

          still working on edits of his Commentary within

          day(s) before his death in1200A.D. 

          Zhi Xi canonized the Four Books as the key texts for

          neo-Confuciansim and elevated them to par with

          the Five Classics. His Commentary is the basis

          of subsequent examination for government posts

          starting in the Yuan dynasty.     

          1304-1321A.D. 

          Dante's poetry in epic form is both a summation of

          medieval Christian worldview and a new starting point for

          subsequent Renaissance Italian literature. The

          Commedia defines the Italian language, just as the King

          James Bible defines English.   

          1601A.D. 

          Lead author in the English language, which is now the

          most used (elite) language globally. Harold Bloom

          considered Shakespear to be the center of the Western

          (literary) Canon. Hamlet is the most popular (and the

          longest) play written by the Bard. 

          First draft by 1754A.D., but draft continued to be edited till

          the author's death. Also known as The Dream of the Red

          Chamber, which includes Chapters 81-120 whose

          author was probably not Cao Xueqin himself.  

          The most literarily sophiscated of the Four Major

          Classical Novels. The study of the novel (hongxue)

          has become an academic displine of its own.

          First edition published in 1781A.D. Second edition

          published in 1787A.D. 

          Kant is now canonized as the most important modern

          Western philosophy. Critique of Pure Reason

          considered his most important work. 

          First volume published in 1867A.D. Marx continued to

          work on this text till his death - and the manuscripts

          were posthumously published. 

          Marx's writings were the fountain head of various

          Communist movements in 19th and 20th centuries.

          Political ideological influence aside, he is now

          canonized in academia as a key political

          economist, the most important 19th century

          philosopher (others being Fichte, Hegel,

          Kierkegaard and Nietszhe), and a founding father of

          sociology (along with Weber and Durkheim). His

          analysis of capitalism is cornerstone of contemporary

          understanding of the modern world - e.g. for the

          Frankfurt school, for Annales school and related World

          System theorists. Das Kapital is Marx's most

          significant theoretical work.