The Thousand Character Classic (千字文) is a Chinese poem used as a primer for teaching Chinese characters to children. It contains exactly one thousand unique characters. It is said that Emperor Wu of the Liang Dynasty (r. 502-549) commissioned 周興嗣 (pinyin: Zhou Xingsi, jyutping: Zau1 Hing3 Zi6) to compose this poem for his prince to practice calligraphy. The original title of the poem was 《次韻王羲之書千字》 and it is sung in the same way in which children learning Latin alphabet writing do with the "alphabet song".
Read more about Thousand Character Classic: Composition, Japan, Korea, Manchu Texts
Famous quotes containing the words thousand, character and/or classic:
“I have seen a thousand graves opened, and always perceived that whatever was gone, the teeth and hair remained of those who had died with them. Is not this odd? They go the very first things in youth & yet last the longest in the dust.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“Eccentricity: strength of character doubling back on itself.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“For years, they have all been dying
Out, the classic buck-and-wing men”
—James Dickey (b. 1923)