He felt that these weaknesses were not weaknesses of Confucianism ; in his view , Song Confucianists interpreted the classic works of the Four Books and the Five Classics the wrong way . In Soraiu 's view , they did this because they `` did not know the old words '' . However , these weaknesses he felt stemmed not from a deficiency in Confucianism itself , but rather from a misreading of classic works of the Four Books and the Five Classics by Song Confucianists , which he insisted `` did not know the old words . ''