The primers weave reading and writing, ethics, history and common knowledge together in rhyme that rolls easily off the tongue, so that children who chant along will remember it.
The Thousand Character Classic was compiled by Zhou Xingsi of the Liang of the Southern Dynasties on the order of Emperor Wu of Liang, and became the most widely used rhymed primer for learning characters in the time after.
The Hundred Family Surnames was compiled in the early Northern Song, with the surname Zhao at its head, for children to learn characters by chanting.
The Three Character Classic appeared in the late Southern Song and is traditionally attributed to Wang Yinglin. The Three Character Classic, the Hundred Family Surnames and the Thousand Character Classic are known together as the "three, hundred, thousand", and this set of primers thereby took shape and was in use for more than seven hundred years.
Primary Education is the class in the chapter on Education on the primers of old for young children, represented by the Three Character Classic, the Hundred Family Surnames, the Thousand Character Classic and the Youxue qionglin (Jade Grove for Young Learners). In easy-flowing rhyme these books taught children to read characters, together with ethics, history and common knowledge.
