"The sky and the earth are black and yellow, the universe is primitive, the sun and the moon are full, and the stars are arranged" means that the sky is blue-black, the earth is yellow, and the universe was formed in a state of chaos and ignorance. The sun is upright and tilted, the moon is full and waning, and the stars are all over the boundless space.
From the Thousand-Character Classic, it is a rhyme composed of one thousand Chinese characters compiled by Zhou Xingsi, a minister of Sanqi in the Liang Dynasty during the Southern and Northern Dynasties.
The sentences in "The Thousand-Character Essay" are as plain as words, easy to recite and remember. The whole text is composed of four-character sentences, with neat contrasts, clear organization, and brilliant literary talent. And it is composed of a thousand non-repeating Chinese characters.
Extended information:
Literacy textbooks specifically for enlightenment appeared very early in China. In the Qin Dynasty, there were "Cangjie Pian" and "Yanli Pian", and in the Han Dynasty There are Sima Xiangru's "Fan Jiang Pian", Jia Li's "Peng Xi Pian", Cai Yong's "Encouragement to Learning", Shi You's "Emergency Chapter",
In the Three Kingdoms period, there are "Pi Cang", "Guang Cang", "Shi Xue Pian", etc. Among these works, only "Ji Jiu Zhang" had an impact on later generations, and the rest had little impact.
Although "Jijiuzhang" is a more prominent primary school book after "Cangjie Pian", due to various problems in its circulation, its authority was not as good as before in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. During this period, Some enlightenment readings, 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 Liang Dynasty, Xiao Yan, Emperor Wu of Liang Dynasty, asked Yin Tieshi to draw out a thousand different characters from Wang Xizhi’s works, each character on a piece of paper, and then put these in no 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—Thousand-Character Essay