![Classique mille carac](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/Classique_mille_carac.JPG)
The ''Thousand Character Classic'' (), also known as the ''Thousand Character Text'', is a
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
poem that has been used as a primer for teaching
Chinese characters
Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanji' ...
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 in a way similar to children learning the Latin alphabet sing an "
alphabet song
The alphabet song is any of various songs used to teach children an alphabet. Alphabet songs typically recite the names of all letters of the alphabet of a given language in order.
The ABC (Verse 1)
"The ABC Song", otherwise referred to as ...
." Along with the ''
Three Character Classic
The ''Three Character Classic'' (), commonly known as ''San Zi Jing'', also translated as ''Trimetric Classic'', is one of the Chinese classic texts. It was probably written in the 13th century and is mainly attributed to Wang Yinglin (王應麟 ...
'' and the ''
Hundred Family Surnames
The ''Hundred Family Surnames'' (), commonly known as ''Bai Jia Xing'', also translated as ''Hundreds of Chinese Surnames'', is a classic Chinese text composed of common Chinese surnames. An unknown author compiled the book during the Song dyn ...
'', it has formed the basis of literacy training in traditional China.
The first line is ''Tian di xuan huang'' () and the last line, ''Yan zai hu ye'' () explains the use of the grammatical particles "yan", "zai", "hu", and "ye".
History
There are several stories of the work's origin. One says that
Emperor Wu of the
Liang dynasty
The Liang dynasty (), alternatively known as the Southern Liang () in historiography, was an imperial dynasty of China and the third of the four Southern dynasties during the Northern and Southern dynasties period. It was preceded by the South ...
(r. 502–549) commissioned Zhou Xingsi (, 470–521) to compose this poem for his prince to practice
calligraphy
Calligraphy (from el, link=y, καλλιγραφία) is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "t ...
. Another says that the emperor commanded
Wang Xizhi
Wang Xizhi (; ; 303 AD361 AD) was a Chinese calligrapher, politician, general and writer during the Jin Dynasty (266–420), Jin dynasty. He was best known for his mastery of Chinese calligraphy. Wang is sometimes regarded as the greatest Chinese ...
, a noted calligrapher, to write out one thousand characters and give them to Zhou as a challenge to make into an ode. Another story is that the emperor commanded his princes and court officers to compose essays and ordered another minister to copy them on a thousand slips of paper, which became mixed and scrambled. Zhou was given the task of restoring these slips to their original order. He worked so intensely to finish doing so overnight that his hair turned completely white.
The ''Thousand Character Classic'' is understood to be one of the most widely read texts in China in the first millennium. The popularity of the book in the Tang dynasty is shown by the fact that there were some 32 copies found in the
Dunhuang
Dunhuang () is a county-level city in Northwestern Gansu Province, Western China. According to the 2010 Chinese census, the city has a population of 186,027, though 2019 estimates put the city's population at about 191,800. Dunhuang was a major ...
archaeological excavations. By the
Song dynasty
The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...
, since all literate people could be assumed to have memorized the text, the order of its characters was used to put documents in sequence in the same way that alphabetical order is used in alphabetic languages.
The Buddhist
Uyghur Kingdom of Qocho used the thousand character classic and the
Qieyun and it was written that "In Qocho city were more than fifty monasteries, all titles of which are granted by the emperors of the Tang dynasty, which keep many Buddhist texts as
Tripitaka,
Tangyun
The ''Tangyun'' () is a Chinese language, Chinese rime dictionary, published in 732 CE during the Tang dynasty, by Sun Mian (孫愐), which is a revised version of ''Qieyun'', a guide for Chinese pronunciation by using the fanqie method. The ori ...
,
Yupuan,
Jingyin etc."
In the dynasties following the Song, the ''
Three Character Classic
The ''Three Character Classic'' (), commonly known as ''San Zi Jing'', also translated as ''Trimetric Classic'', is one of the Chinese classic texts. It was probably written in the 13th century and is mainly attributed to Wang Yinglin (王應麟 ...
'', ''
Hundred Family Surnames
The ''Hundred Family Surnames'' (), commonly known as ''Bai Jia Xing'', also translated as ''Hundreds of Chinese Surnames'', is a classic Chinese text composed of common Chinese surnames. An unknown author compiled the book during the Song dyn ...
'', and ''1,000 Character Classic'' came to be known collectively as ''San Bai Qian'' (Three, Hundred, Thousand), from the first character in their titles. They were the almost universal introductory literacy texts for students, almost exclusively boys, from elite backgrounds and even for a number of ordinary villagers. Each was available in many versions, printed cheaply, and available to all since they did not become superseded. When a student had memorized all three, he could recognize and pronounce, though not necessarily write or understand the meaning of, roughly 2,000 characters (there was some duplication among the texts). Since Chinese did not use an alphabet, this was an effective, albeit time-consuming, way of giving a "crash course" in character recognition before going on to understanding texts and writing characters.
Later
Zhu xi
Zhu Xi (; ; October 18, 1130 – April 23, 1200), formerly romanized Chu Hsi, was a Chinese calligrapher, historian, philosopher, poet, and politician during the Song dynasty. Zhu was influential in the development of Neo-Confucianism. He con ...
the noted neo Confucianism scholar inspired by the three classics of education wrote ''Xiaoxue or elementary learning similar to the above texts''
Japan
Wani
Wani may refer to:
*Vani (custom), a child marriage custom in tribal areas of Pakistan
*Wani (dragon), a Japanese dragon translated as "sea monster", "crocodile", or "shark"
*Wani (scholar), a legendary scholar, sent from Korea to Japan during the ...
, a semi-legendary Chinese-Baekje scholar, is said to have translated the ''Thousand Character Classic'' to
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
along with 10 books of the ''
Analects of Confucius
The ''Analects'' (; ; Old Chinese: '' ŋ(r)aʔ''; meaning "Selected Sayings"), also known as the ''Analects of Confucius'', the ''Sayings of Confucius'', or the ''Lun Yu'', is an ancient Chinese book composed of a large collection of sayings a ...
'' during the reign of
Emperor Ōjin
, also known as (alternatively spelled 譽田別命, 誉田別命, 品陀和気命, 譽田分命, 誉田別尊, 品陀別命) or , was the 15th (possibly legendary) Emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession.
No firm dat ...
(r. 370?-410?). However, this alleged event precedes the composition of the ''Thousand Character Classic''. This makes many assume that the event is simply fiction, but some believe it to be based in fact, perhaps using a different version of the ''Thousand Character Classic''.
Korea
The ''Thousand Character Classic'' has been used as a
primer
Primer may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* ''Primer'' (film), a 2004 feature film written and directed by Shane Carruth
* ''Primer'' (video), a documentary about the funk band Living Colour
Literature
* Primer (textbook), a t ...
for learning Chinese characters for many centuries. It is uncertain when the ''Thousand Character Classic'' was introduced to Korea.
The book is noted as a principal force—along with the introduction of
Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...
into
Korea
Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...
—behind the introduction of Chinese characters into the Korean language.
Hanja
Hanja (Hangul: ; Hanja: , ), alternatively known as Hancha, are Chinese characters () used in the writing of Korean. Hanja was used as early as the Gojoseon period, the first ever Korean kingdom.
(, ) refers to Sino-Korean vocabulary, wh ...
was the sole means of writing Korean until the
Hangul
The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The let ...
script was created under the direction of
King Sejong the Great
Sejong of Joseon (15 May 1397 – 8 April 1450), personal name Yi Do ( Korean: 이도; Hanja: 李祹), widely known as Sejong the Great ( Korean: 세종대왕; Hanja: 世宗大王), was the fourth ruler of the Joseon dynasty of Korea. Initi ...
in the 15th century; however, even after the invention of Hangul, most Korean scholars continued to write in Hanja until the late 19th century.
The ''Thousand Character Classic's'' use as a writing primer for children began in 1583, when
King Seonjo
Seonjo of Joseon (26 November 1552 – 16 March 1608) was the fourteenth king of the Joseon Dynasty of Korea from 1567 to 1608. He was known for encouraging Confucianism and renovating state affairs at the beginning of his reign. However, politi ...
ordered
Han Ho (1544–1605) to carve the text into wooden printing blocks.
Forty-four legends from ' (heaven) to ' (water) among ''Thousand Character Classic'' were inscribed one by one on the reverse of ' (a
Joseon Dynasty
Joseon (; ; Middle Korean: 됴ᇢ〯션〮 Dyǒw syéon or 됴ᇢ〯션〯 Dyǒw syěon), officially the Great Joseon (; ), was the last dynastic kingdom of Korea, lasting just over 500 years. It was founded by Yi Seong-gye in July 1392 and re ...
Korean coin).
The ''Thousand Character Classic'' has its own form in representing the Chinese characters. For each character, the text shows its
meaning (
Korean
Korean may refer to:
People and culture
* Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula
* Korean cuisine
* Korean culture
* Korean language
**Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl
**Korean dialects and the Jeju language
** ...
Hanja
Hanja (Hangul: ; Hanja: , ), alternatively known as Hancha, are Chinese characters () used in the writing of Korean. Hanja was used as early as the Gojoseon period, the first ever Korean kingdom.
(, ) refers to Sino-Korean vocabulary, wh ...
: ; ' or ') and
sound
In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid.
In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the ...
(Korean Hanja: ; '). The vocabulary to represent the ' has remained unchanged in every edition, despite the natural evolution of the Korean language since then. However, in the editions ''Gwangju Thousand Character Classic'' and ''Seokbong Thousand Character Classic'', both written in the 16th century, there are a number of different meanings expressed for the same character. The types of changes of ' in ''Seokbong Thousand Character Classic'' into those in ''Gwangju Thousand Character Classic'' fall roughly under the following categories:
#Definitions turned more generalized or more concrete when semantic scope of each character had been changed
#Former definitions were replaced by synonyms
#Parts of speech in the definitions were changed
From these changes, replacements between native Korean and
Sino-Korean can be found. Generally, "rare ' vocabularies" are presumed to be pre-16th century, for it is thought that they may be a fossilized form of native Korean vocabulary or affected by the influence of a
regional dialect
The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena:
One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a ...
in
Jeolla
Jeolla Province (, ) was one of the historical Eight Provinces of Korea during the Kingdom of Joseon in today Southwestern Korea. It consisted of the modern South Korean provinces of North Jeolla, South Jeolla and Gwangju Metropolitan City as wel ...
Province.
South Korean senior scholar, Daesan Kim Seok-jin (Korean
Hangul
The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The let ...
: ), expressed the significance of Thousand Character Classic by contrasting the Western ''concrete science'' and the Asian ''metaphysics'' and ''origin-oriented thinking'' in which "it is the collected poems of nature of cosmos and reasons behind human life".
The first 44 characters of the Thousand Character Classic were used on the reverse sides of some ''Sangpyeong Tongbo'' cash coins of the
Korean mun
The ''mun'' (Hanja: ) was introduced as the main currency of Korea in 1625 and stayed in use until 1892. Prior to the ''mun'', cash coins with the inscriptions ''tongbo'' (通寶) and ''jungbo'' (重寶) and silver vases called ''ŭnbyŏng'' ...
currency to indicate furnace or "series" numbers.
Manchu texts
Several different
Manchu
The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized ethnic minority in China and the people from whom Manchuria derives its name. The Later Jin (1616–1636) and ...
texts of the ''Thousand Character Classic'' are known today. They all use the
Manchu script
The Manchu alphabet ( mnc, m=, v=manju hergen, a=manju hergen) is the alphabet used to write the now nearly-extinct Manchu language. A similar script is used today by the Xibe people, who speak a language considered either as a dialect of Ma ...
to transcribe Chinese characters. They are utilized in research on Chinese phonology.
The ''Man han ciyan dzi wen'' () written by Chen Qiliang (), contains Chinese text and Manchu phonetic transcription. This version was published during the reign of the
Kangxi Emperor
The Kangxi Emperor (4 May 1654– 20 December 1722), also known by his temple name Emperor Shengzu of Qing, born Xuanye, was the third emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the second Qing emperor to rule over China proper, reigning from 1661 to 1 ...
.
Another text, the ''Qing Shu Qian Zi Wen'' () by You Zhen (), was published in 1685 as a supplement to the ''Baiti Qing Wen'' (). It provides Manchu transcription without original Chinese. It is known for being referred to by Japanese scholar
Ogyū Sorai
(March 21, 1666 – February 28, 1728), pen name Butsu Sorai, was a Japanese Confucian philosopher. He has been described as the most influential such scholar during the Edo period Japan. His primary area of study was in applying the teachings ...
for Manchu studies as early as the 18th century.
The undated ''ciyan dzi wen'' which is owned by the
Bibliothèque nationale de France
The Bibliothèque nationale de France (, 'National Library of France'; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites known respectively as ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository ...
is a variant of the ''Qing Shu Qian Zi Wen''. It is believed to have been used by the translation office of the
Joseon Dynasty
Joseon (; ; Middle Korean: 됴ᇢ〯션〮 Dyǒw syéon or 됴ᇢ〯션〯 Dyǒw syěon), officially the Great Joseon (; ), was the last dynastic kingdom of Korea, lasting just over 500 years. It was founded by Yi Seong-gye in July 1392 and re ...
of Korea. It contains Hangul transcription for both Manchu and Chinese. It is valuable to the study of Manchu phonology.
Text variants
The text of the ''Qiānzì Wén'' is not available in an authoritative, standardized version. Comparison of various manuscript, printed and electronic editions shows that these do not all contain exactly the same 1,000 characters. In many cases the differences concern just small graphic variations (for example character no. 4, 黃 or 黄, both ''huáng'' "yellow"). In other cases variant characters are quite different, although still associated with the same pronunciation and meaning (for example character no. 123, 一 or 壹, both ''yì'' "one"). In a few cases, variant characters represent different pronunciations and meanings (for example character no. 132, 竹 ''zhú'' "bamboo" or 樹 ''shù'' "tree"). These textual variants are not noted or discussed in any existing edition of the text in a western language. In fact, even the text appended to this article differs from the text presented in Wikisource in 25 places (nos. 123 一/壹, 132 竹/樹, 428 郁/鬱, 438 彩/綵, 479 群/羣, 482 稿/稾, 554 回/迴, 617 岳/嶽, 619 泰/恆, 643 綿/緜, 645 岩/巖/, 693 鑒/鑑, 733 沉/沈/, 767 蚤/早, 776 搖/颻, 787 玩/翫, 803 餐/飡, 846 筍/笋, 849 弦/絃, 852 宴/讌, 854 杯/盃, 881 箋/牋, 953 璿/璇, 980 庄/莊). A critical text edition of the ''Qiānzì Wén'', based upon the best manuscript and printed sources, has not yet been attempted.
Text
See also
*
Chengyu (traditional Chinese four-character parables)
*
Pakapoo
Pakapoo (; sometimes spelt pak-ah-pu) is a Chinese lottery game popular in Oceania in the 19th century, including on the Victorian Goldfields.
A pakapoo ticket is bought which contains rows of characters from the ''Thousand Character Classic'', ...
(the use of the ''Thousand Character Classic'' as a lottery)
Similar poems in other languages
*
Alphabet song
The alphabet song is any of various songs used to teach children an alphabet. Alphabet songs typically recite the names of all letters of the alphabet of a given language in order.
The ABC (Verse 1)
"The ABC Song", otherwise referred to as ...
*
Hanacaraka
Hanacaraka is the native name for the following indigenous scripts used in Indonesia:
*The Balinese script
*The Javanese script
*The Sundanese script
Standard Sundanese script (''Aksara Sunda Baku'', ) is a writing system which is used by the ...
, Javanese
*
Iroha
The is a Japanese poem. Originally the poem was attributed to the founder of the Shingon Esoteric sect of Buddhism in Japan, Kūkai, but more modern research has found the date of composition to be later in the Heian period (794–1179). The f ...
, Japanese
*
Shiva Sutra
The Śiva·sūtras, technically akṣara·samāmnāya, variously called ', ''pratyāhāra·sūtrāṇi'', ''varṇa·samāmnāya'', etc., refer to a set of fourteen aphorisms devised as an arrangement of the sounds of Sanskrit for the purposes ...
, Sanskrit
*
Азбучна молитва, Bulgarian
Notes
Bibliography
* Online a
Hathi Trust Includes text (in four scripts), extensive notes, and translations into four languages.
*
External links
*
* Thousand-Character Essay
ianzi Wen
*
*
*
*
*
Thousand Character Classic 千字文Chinese text with embedded Chinese-English reader dictionary at Chinese Notes
{{Confucian texts
Chinese classic texts
Chinese culture
Japanese literature
Chinese characters
Korean language
Constrained writing
Chinese children's books