千字文

"千字文" by Xingsi Zhou is a Chinese poem composed in the sixth century. Containing exactly one thousand unique characters arranged into rhyming stanzas, it served as a fundamental literacy primer throughout the Sinosphere. Each character appears only once in this carefully constructed text, designed to teach children character recognition through memorization and song. Legend claims Zhou's hair turned white from completing this imperial commission overnight. Its influence spread across East Asia for over a millennium.

Summary written by Project Gutenberg, by machine.