Three Character Classic Hundred Family Surnames

Author: Zhong Lei
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-04-01
Features: "The Three Character Classic" is one of the most representative children's enlightenment textbooks in ancient China. With its concise language, easy-to-understand style, rich content, and memorability, it has been widely circulated among the people for a long time. Its scope of influence was unparalleled among ancient primary school reading materials. The author of "The Three Character Classic" is traditionally believed to be Wang Yinglin, a famous scholar of the Southern Song Dynasty. There are also claims that it was written by Qu Shizi at the end of the Song Dynasty and Li Zhen of the Ming Dynasty. After the Ming and Qing dynasties, it was supplemented and revised. In the early years of the Republic of China, the master of Confucian studies Zhang Taiyan revised and corrected the original "Three Character Classic," naming it "Revised Three Character Classic," which is now the most common version. The entire text of "The Three Character Classic" consists of only over a thousand characters but covers a wide range of knowledge, including the importance of learning and education, ethical and moral norms, common knowledge of names and things, classics, histories, and the stories of ancient scholars who studied diligently. Even today, it still offers enlightenment. Due to historical limitations, the feudal patriarchal ideology and moral concepts it promotes are far behind the times and should be discarded when reading.
The character "hundred" in "The Hundred Surnames" implies the meaning of "many." The book contains a total of 438 surnames, including 408 single-surname surnames and 30 compound-surname surnames. These numerous surnames each have their origins, such as some being named after the ancestral homeland, some after official titles, and some after the names of ancestors, etc. Tracing their roots, all are based on historical facts, containing much historical knowledge.