Three Character Classic

With illiteracy common for most people at the time, the oral tradition of reciting the classic ensured its popularity and survival through the centuries.

They were the almost universal introductory literacy texts for students, almost exclusively boys, from elite backgrounds and even for a number of ordinary villagers.

When a student had memorized all three, they could recognize and pronounce, though not necessarily write or understand the meaning of, roughly 2,000 characters (there was some duplication among the texts).

The first four verses state the core credo of Confucianism, that is, that human nature is inherently good, as developed by Mencius, considered one of the most influential traditional Chinese philosophers after Confucius.

[3] Even nowadays, the above two introductory quotes are very familiar to most youth in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, if not known by heart.

[citation needed] The Three Character Classic was translated in 1796 into Manchu as ᠮᠠᠨᠵᡠ ᠨᡳᡴᠠᠨ ᡥᡝᡵᡤᡝᠨᡳᡴᠠᠮᠴᡳᠮᡝ ᠰᡠᡥᡝ ᠰᠠᠨ ᡯ ᡤᡳᠩ ᠪᡳᡨᡥᡝ (Wylie: Manchu nikan ghergen i kamtsime sughe San tsz' ging pitghe; Möllendorff: Manju nikan hergen-i kamcime suhe San ze ging ni bithe).

Earlier translations into English include those by Robert Morrison, 1812; Solomon Caesar Malan and Hung Hsiu-chʻüan, 1856, and Stanislas Julien, 1864.

A Christian Three Character Classic (Chinese: 新增三字經; Pinyin: Xīnzēng Sānzì Jīng) by Walter Henry Medhurst was first published in 1823 as an aid to missionary education.