๐Ÿ”— Thousand Character Classic

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The Thousand Character Classic (Chinese: ๅƒๅญ—ๆ–‡; pinyin: Qiฤnzรฌ Wรฉn), 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.

The first line is Tian di xuan huang (traditional Chinese: ๅคฉๅœฐ็Ž„้ปƒ; simplified Chinese: ๅคฉๅœฐ็Ž„้ป„; pinyin: Tiฤndรฌ xuรกn huรกng; Jyutping: tin1 dei6 jyun4 wong4; lit. 'Heaven and Earth Dark and Yellow') and the last line, Yan zai hu ye (็„‰ๅ“‰ไนŽไนŸ; Yฤn zฤi hลซ yฤ›; yin1 zoi1 fu4 jaa5) explains the use of the grammatical particles "yan", "zai", "hu", and "ye".

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