An Introduction to the Montessori Classics "The Thousand Character Essay

The Thousand Character Essay can be said to be a milestone in the classics of monasticism. People will say that this is too serious, it is not just a children's song for children to read. In fact, it is not, the layman to see the fun, the insider to see the doorway. I can say here such a big statement: "In addition to the study of Chinese undergraduates or people specializing in the study of ancient languages, there are really few people who can read and understand the Thousand Character Classic!"

First of all, let's talk about the Thousand Character Classic from the point of view of children's character recognition, literacy, and character practice.

As an ancient textbook for monks, the Thousand Character Classic can be said to be a combination of character recognition, literacy, and word study. It began with the mission for which it was created. During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Emperor Wu of Liang, in order to make his sons and nephews literate and practicing characters, and did not want to take out Wang Xizhi's real handwriting, so he let his minister Yin Tieshi from Wang Xizhi's real handwriting on the outline of a thousand different Chinese characters*** children copying to use. However, the scattered Chinese characters were not easy to memorize. So he ordered Zhou Xingsi to make a rhyme. Zhou spent the night arranging these one thousand Chinese characters like a child playing with a jigsaw puzzle. The thousand character script was spelled out with a beautiful sound and rhyme. The Thousand Character Essay consists of one sentence for each of four characters and one rhyme for each of two sentences. The entire text is 250 lines long, with eight rhymes. The rhythmic beauty of the melodious and resonant interplay creates a reverberating symphonic effect.

The Chinese characters so far have been tens of thousands, and these tens of thousands of Chinese characters are now commonly used in the Chinese characters of about 3-5000 words. A book of hundreds of thousands of words can easily be used on the Hanzi is only about 2500-3000 words. Records of the Shang Dynasty and the history and culture of the pre-Shang Dynasty oracle bone inscriptions, after many years of archaeologists, philologists, found that *** there are more than 4,000 words. Of these, more than 2,500 can be recognized, most of which are special characters for divination, and there are only a thousand or so characters for daily application. The Shang Dynasty had a history of more than six hundred years, and there were only a thousand or so commonly used characters. Of course, there were fewer characters back then, but on the other side of the coin, being able to manage a thousand Chinese characters was already remarkable. Nowadays, it is not easy for us adults to sit down and write a thousand non-repeating Chinese characters. If someone who has memorized the Thousand Character Classic is to say, it's a snap.

When it comes to character recognition and literacy people must say isn't it the same thing? I would like to make a correction here. Recognizing words ≠ literacy. Recognizing words means being able to pronounce the sounds of the words in a text, whereas literacy involves not only knowing the sounds of the words but also the meaning of the words. For our children to be able to write 1,000 non-repeating Chinese characters and also know the meaning of these characters is a great thing.

Before the invention of the printing press, texts were transmitted through two main ways: orally and by copying. A good article must have a beautiful sound and be easy to read in order to be passed on through oral presentation. As for copying, it is very laborious to copy by hand, and the articles worth copying must be good in content, and the words must be durable and artistically beautiful. The circulation of the Thousand Character Essay fulfills these two points. The Thousand Character Essay is known as "the world's first character book". Ancient and modern calligraphers from Zen Master Zhiyong, Ouyang Xun, Yan Zhenqing, Huai Su, Mi Fu, etc., to the right Ren, Qigong, etc., all worship "Thousand Character Essay" as the study of calligraphy for the classic posting, only in the Northern Song Dynasty, the royal collection of "Thousand Character Essay" there are as many as 49 kinds.

Let's look at the connotation of this classic.

The Thousand Character Essay is the finest classic of enlightenment in Chinese history. With only one thousand Chinese characters, it outlines a complete picture of China's cultural history and represents the highest level of traditional enlightenment. He is both a long poem in four lines and a pocket-sized encyclopedia of knowledge.

It can be said that this article is the crystallization of Zhou Xingsi's life wisdom, and in one thousand words it talks about filial piety and fraternal duty, reform, speech, friendship, admiration for talent, remembrance of the virtuous, and temperament, and so on, the moral code of cultivating oneself. At the same time, it is a highly condensed history of Chinese culture, covering astronomy, geography, nature, history, personal stories, rules and regulations, morality and ethics, and many other aspects, which is a combination of the knowledge of the various parts of the national science of "Jing, Shi, Zi, and Jiji. The giants of language and masters of literature in Chinese history, such as Lu Xun, Ba Jin, Paradox, Shen Congwen, Lin Yutang, etc., all went to private schools, and most of those who did so were enlightened by the Thousand Character Classic. Start their literary journey.

Enlightenment is quite important, the child is like a piece of blank paper, what you add to him is what. To plant the seed of goodness in the child when he is small, the child grows up, he will harvest a blue sky. From an early age, a child learns that "the heavens and the earth, the universe and the universe". He looks at heaven and earth and the universe, and examines the past and present and the future. His heart and vision are broadened, and the direction of his life will not be confined to small gullies and ravines.

Finally, let's talk about the usefulness of the Thousand Character Essay for the college entrance exam.

First, the response to the language middle and high school entrance exams.

It is said that language learning and English learning are the same, both need a long time and a lot of vocabulary accumulation. Before the fourth grade, our children learn a thousand words and understand the meaning of a thousand words. The children can understand simple ancient texts, at least classical novels like Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Journey to the West. You don't have to read a sentence and ask a question, and you won't feel boring. Reading one such classic book is going to build up more vocabulary than a child reading dozens of contemporary is literature. In the middle and high school entrance exams, essay writing is a big score, and it is also the easiest to lose points. The language of the thousands of words is beautiful and rich in diction. No matter what sentence, used in the composition will make the composition upgraded a grade. I don't want to talk too much about it here.

Let's look at the language test questions in the middle and high school exams on the requirements of the literary language: "Be able to read, understand, analyze, and appreciate simple ancient poems, and correctly interpret the classics of traditional culture. Silent writing of common famous texts."

In previous years, the type of questions in the middle and high school exams was fixed. There were multiple choice questions to test real words, test imaginary words and article comprehension, and then two translations were given. Over the years there has been an increasing shift towards comprehension. The first is the "understanding" of the text, and the second is the "understanding" of the text, and the third is the "understanding" of the text. For example, the choice of sentence breaks, general knowledge of ancient culture and so on. In other words. In the past, it was necessary to "read and understand," but now it is necessary to analyze, summarize, evaluate, and make inferences. Take the generalization, write about people, to know who? What did? The latter's evaluation of him; to write a discussion to know things and reason; to write the scene to know the feelings and scenery

What is the relationship between this and our learning of the thousand characters? Of course it does! Although the difficulty of the examination has increased. The essence of the test can not change. The selection of material is bound to be outside the classroom. But the study of knowledge points in the literary language focus on the understanding of real and imaginary words. We study the "Thousand Character Text" also lies in the understanding of the real words in the ancient text.

Second, let's talk about the study of history.

Chinese history spans five thousand years. We need to plant a coordinate point of recognizable historical events in our children when they are young. This way, when they come to middle school, they won't be at a loss when it comes to history. The Thousand Character Classic summarizes the long period of history before the Han Dynasty. It is an invaluable tool for children to learn about the history and culture of ancient times and the past.

If I were to summarize the Thousand Character Essay in one sentence, I would say that it is a piece of writing, a night's work, a lifetime's wisdom; a thousand characters, an eternity of writing, and a thousand years of good words.

About the "Thousand Character Essay" of good words, really can not be said, but also can not be said, only slow down, savor can understand the true meaning!

To learn traditional culture, let's start with the Thousand Character Classic!

To learn about traditional culture, let's start with the Thousand Character Classic.