Thousand Character Classic in 4 Calligraphic Styles - HD app for iPhone and iPad


4.0 ( 1890 ratings )
Reference Education
Developer: Next Token Solutions
9.99 USD
Current version: 1.3, last update: 7 years ago
First release : 22 Jun 2011
App size: 10.93 Mb

This is an App with great value in Chinese learning. It could accompany your learning for the many years to come.

Highlight of the great advantages:

1. Appreciate 4 calligraphic styles written by the most famous calligrapher in Chinese history. Each of the 4000 characters is an genuine art piece. They are NOT computer fonts like other Chinese learning Apps.

2. Discover connections among different styles of each character by spotting the commonalities

3. Learn to recognize and read each character in both Mandarin and Cantonese

4. Find Chinese characters of interest by searching English meaning. E.g. No more silly and ugly Chinese characters for your tattoo

5. Share your favorite characters with your friends via email

6. Once you master some characters, the 1000 characters of each style is actually a classical poem which includes many Chinese historical facts and stories, as well as traditional Chinese values and virtues.

1000 characters in 4 calligraphic styles written by the most famous calligrapher about 2000 years ago. This App includes offline Mandarin & Cantonese pronunciations. You may search characters by Chinese traditional & simplified characters, Pinyin, English definitions, and pronunciations of Japanese, Korean & Vietnamese.

This App is ideal for learners around the world who are interested in learning or mastering Chinese Characters (Hanzi).

Wang Xizhi (Chinese: 王羲之, 303–361) was a Chinese calligrapher, traditionally referred to as the Sage of Calligraphy (書聖), lived in Jin Dynasty (265–420).

The Thousand Character Classic (千字文) is a Chinese poem used as a primer for teaching Chinese characters to children. It contains exactly one thousand unique characters. It is said that Emperor Wu of the Liang Dynasty (r. 502-549) made 周興嗣 (Chow Hing-Ji) compose this poem for his prince to practice calligraphy. The original title of the poem was 《次韻王羲之書千字》 and it is sung in the same way in which children learning Latin alphabet writing do with the "alphabet song".

The Thousand Character Classic is composed of 250 phrases of 4 characters each from "天地玄黃" (jyutping: tin1 dei6 jyun4 wong4, pinyin: tiān dì xuán huáng) to "焉哉乎也" (jyutping: yin1 zoi1 fu1 jaa5, pinyin: yān zāi hū yě). It was selected among the calligraphies of 王羲之 (Wang Xizhi), one of the finest calligraphers in China, and composed by Zhou Xingsi, who lived from 470 to 521 in the Liang country in the Southern Dynasty period. The characters of the poem were sometimes used to represent the numbers from 1 through 1000.