Department:
The Museum Proper
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On Display, In Storage, or in a Private Offsite Collection:
On Display
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Communication Objects
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Notable Signatures,
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Unknown
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Unknown
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Chinese
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"The Thousand-Character Classic" is a Chinese poem used as an introductory book for teaching Chinese characters to children. It contains exactly one thousand unique characters. According to legend, Emperor Wu of Liang (reigned 502-549) ordered Zhou Xingsi to write this poem for the prince to practice calligraphy.
The book has one thousand words, one word for each, 250 lines for every four words, and the four lines rhyme, making it easy to remember. It is sung similarly to the "alphabet song" sung by children learning the English alphabet. Together with "Three Character Classic" and "Hundred Family Surnames", it forms the basis of traditional Chinese literacy training.
The calligraphy is by Wang Xizhi, one of China's finest calligraphers, and was created by Zhou Xingsi, who lived from 470 to 521 AD in the Liang Dynasty. The content covers various aspects such as heaven and earth, Chinese history, geography, agriculture, etc. The first line is Tiandi Xuanhuang ‘天地’, and the last line is Yan Zai Zai Ye = explaining the usage of the grammatical particles “yan”, “zai”, “hu”, and “ye”.
The Thousand Character Classic is considered one of the most widely read texts in China during the first millennium. The popularity of this book in the Tang Dynasty can be seen from the 32 copies unearthed in Dunhuang archaeological excavations. By the Song Dynasty, it could be assumed that all literate people had memorized the script, so its character order was used to order documents, much like alphabetical order is used in alphabetic languages.
Artifact Date:
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Creator:
Unknown
Creator Ancestory:
Chinese
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Department:
The Museum Proper
On Display, In Storage, or in a Private Offsite Collection:
On Display
Replica or Original:
A classic hand written scroll of a thousand characters
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Classification/Category:
Communication Objects
Specific Classification:
Notable Signatures,
Inscriptions, and/or Markings: