Children's enlightenment books in ancient China are also called "Educational Studies". The most famous ones are "Three Hundred Thousand", which are: "Three Character Classic", "Hundred Family Surnames" and "Thousand Character Classic".
1. The "Three Character Classic" is a well-known elementary school reading book. It has been widely circulated for hundreds of years and has become a household name. The Three Character Classic is rich in content. Zhang Taiyan, a master of modern studies, said: "His book first lists the names and categories of things, and then the classics and history, so it is well prepared for enlightening the young." In other words, the "Three Character Classic" is an enlightenment reading with the same content.
The arrangement of its content is also very organized, reflecting the author's educational thoughts. The author believes that teaching children should focus on etiquette and filial piety, correcting children's thoughts, and imparting knowledge comes second, that is, "the first step is filial piety, followed by knowledge and knowledge." Teaching children should start from primary school, that is, first learn to read, and then read the classics and Ziliang kind of classics.
2. "Hundred Family Surnames" is the longest popular and most widely circulated elementary education textbook in my country. It is written in four-character style, with rhyming sentences. Although its content is not literate, it is easy to read, easy to learn and remember. "Hundred Family Surnames" is a unique cultural phenomenon in China. Several surnames compiled in it reflect the Chinese people's strong sense of identification with lineage and blood.
Surname culture, or genealogy culture, is an important part of Chinese culture. The Chinese are the ethnic group with the most "root-seeking consciousness" in the world. In the evolution of history, "Hundred Family Surnames" has provided important textual basis for people to find the origin of their lineage, establish a sense of belonging in the sense of blood kinship, and help people understand the traditional blood kinship complex.
It is an indispensable basic blueprint of cultural documents for Chinese people to understand themselves and their family history.
3. "Thousand Character Essay", the full name is "Ciyun Wang Xi's Book Thousand Characters", compiled by Liang Zhou Xingsi. It is said that Emperor Wu of Liang Dynasty, Xiao Yan, ordered Zhou Xingsi to draw a thousand unique characters from Wang Xizhi's stele and compile them into rhymes. "The Thousand-Character Classic" is rich in knowledge and has beautiful phonology. It is very suitable for elementary school children to memorize and study. It has become a traditional classic elementary school textbook for thousands of years.
Even today, reading and studying "The Thousand Character Classic" can help young people perceive traditional culture and civilization, understand Chinese history, appreciate the accuracy and exquisiteness of Chinese characters in conveying emotions, understand the wisdom of the ancients, and have a glimpse of the Chinese Academy of Chinese Studies. Oh, they are all shortcuts to get started.
"The Thousand Character Essay" provides children with the most concentrated spirit of Chinese studies. Children who read and understand "The Thousand-Character Classic" are different from children who have not read "The Thousand-Character Classic" in terms of cultural makeup and spiritual development.
Extended information
Background of the work
1. There are different opinions about the time when the Three Character Classic was written and the author. Most scholars of later generations tend to think that "Mr. Wang Bohou, a Confucian of the Song Dynasty, wrote the Three-Character Classic and taught it in private schools." That is to say, in order to better educate his own children in reading, Wang Yinglin compiled the Three-Character Classic, which integrates classics and history.
Wang Yinglin was from the Southern Song Dynasty, and the historical part of the original "Three Character Classic" only covers the Song Dynasty. With the development of history, in order to reflect the changes of the times, people in each dynasty continued to add to the Three Character Classic. During the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty, He Xingsi added a total of twenty-four sentences about the history of the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties.
2. "One Hundred Surnames" is not only an enlightenment textbook, but also a book recording Chinese surnames. Its content comes from the development of surnames. Before "Hundred Family Surnames", written records of surnames can be traced back to the oracle bone inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty.
During the Warring States Period, there was the "Shiben" compiled by historians, which recorded the surnames, lineages, residences, etc. of the princes and officials from the Yellow Emperor to the Spring and Autumn Period. Unfortunately, it had been gradually destroyed by the Song Dynasty.
According to historical documents, surnames can be traced back to the matrilineal clan system in primitive human society. The early surnames in China all had female characters or radicals, such as Ji and Yao. At that time, surnames were used as specific symbols to distinguish clans, such as the name of a tribe or the name of a tribal leader. Legend has it that the Yellow Emperor lived on the shore of Jishui and took Ji as his surname.
Emperor Yan lived next to Jiangshui and took Jiang as his surname. Emperor Tian recognized Dayu for his merits in controlling floods and gave him the surname Si. In addition, the son of a tribal leader can also receive a surname. The Yellow Emperor had twenty-five sons, fourteen of whom had the surnames Ji, You, Qi, Ji, Teng, Ren, Xun, Wei, Xi, Ji, Zhang, and Yi. Four of them belonged to the second surname. . After Zhu Rong, there were eight surnames: Ji, Dong, Peng, Tu, Ju, Cao, Zhen and Mi. They were called the eight surnames of Zhu Rong in history.
3. Literacy textbooks dedicated to enlightenment appeared very early in China. In the Qin Dynasty, there were "Cangjie Pian" and "Yanli Pian", and in the Han Dynasty there was Sima Xiangru's "Fan Jiang" "Pian", Jia Li's "Peng Xi Pian", Cai Yong's "Encouragement to Learning", Shi You's "Ji Jiu Zhang", and the Three Kingdoms era include "Pi Cang", "Guang Cang", "Shi Xue Pian", etc.
Among these works, only "Ji Jiu Zhang" had an impact on later generations, and the others had little impact. Although "Ji Jiu Zhang" is a more prominent primary school book after "Cang Jie Pian", due to various problems in its circulation, its authority was far less than before in the Southern and Northern Dynasties.
And some enlightenment readings that appeared during this period, such as "Tinggao" and "Jieyou", have limited readability. It was against this background that "The Thousand Character Essay" came out.
During the Southern Dynasties, in order to teach calligraphy to the kings of the Liang Dynasty, Xiao Yan, Emperor Wu of the Liang Dynasty, asked Yin Tieshi to carve out a thousand different characters from Wang Xizhi’s works, each character on a piece of paper, and then put these out of order. The rubbings were given to Zhou Xingsi, who compiled them into rhymes with content. This is the "Thousand-Character Classic" that has been passed down to the 21st century for more than 1,400 years.
Baidu Encyclopedia - Three Character Classic
Baidu Encyclopedia - Hundred Family Surnames
Baidu Encyclopedia - Thousand Character Classic