Thousand Character Classic
The Thousand Character Classic (Chinese: 千字文; pinyin: Qiānzì Wén), also known as the Thousand Character Text, is a Chinese poem that has been used as a primer for teaching Chinese characters to children from the sixth century onward. It contains exactly one thousand characters, each used only once, arranged into 250 lines of four characters apiece and grouped into four line rhyming stanzas to make it easy to memorize. It is sung, much as children learning the Latin alphabet sing an "alphabet song." Along with the Three Character Classic and the Hundred Family Surnames, it has formed the basis of literacy training in traditional China.
| Thousand Character Classic | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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A calligraphic work titled An Authentic "Thousand Character Classic", Song dynasty | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chinese | 千字文 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hanyu Pinyin | Qiānzì Wén | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Vietnamese name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Vietnamese alphabet | Thiên tự văn | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chữ Hán | 千字文 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Korean name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hangul | 천자문 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hanja | 千字文 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Japanese name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Kanji | 千字文 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Kana | せんじもん | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The first line is Tian di xuan huang (traditional Chinese: 天地玄黃; simplified Chinese: 天地玄黄; pinyin: Tiāndì xuán huáng; Jyutping: tin1 dei6 jyun4 wong4; lit. 'Heaven and Earth Dark and Yellow') and the last line, Yan zai hu ye (焉哉乎也; Yān zāi hū yě; yin1 zoi1 fu4 jaa5) explains the use of the grammatical particles "yan", "zai", "hu", and "ye".