Thousand Character Classic

The Thousand Character Classic (Chinese千字文, Pinyin Qianziwen; jap: senjibun ) was a book for elementary education in ancient China. The original title of the work was Ciyun Wang Xizhi shu Qianzi ( "次 韵 王羲之 书 千字").

The text consists of exactly one thousand characters in the form of a poem, which accounted for 250 verses to 4 characters each. Each character dips precisely at a time. The text begins with the famous words Tian Xuan Di Huang (天地 玄 黄) and ends with Yan Zai Hu Ye (焉 哉 乎 也). As a pattern, calligraphy Wang Xizhis was taken, the most famous calligraphers of China. Compiled the work of Zhou Xingsi (周兴嗣), who lived 470-521.

Text example

「天地 玄 黄,宇宙 洪荒.

日月 盈 昃,辰 宿 列 张.

寒来暑往,秋收 冬藏.

闰 余 成 岁,律 吕 调 阳. 云腾 致 雨,露 结 调 霜.

金生丽 水,玉 出 昆冈.

剑 号 巨阙,珠 称 夜光.

果珍 李 柰,菜 重 芥 姜.

海 咸 河 淡,鳞 潜 羽 翔.

龙 师 火 帝,鸟 官人 皇.

始 制 文字,乃 服 衣裳.

推 位 让 国,有 虞 陶唐. 」