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A New Study of 「QianZiWen千字文」

QianZiWen has been a very important part of classical literature not only in Mainland China, but also on the Korean Peninsula. One reason QianZiWen has affected so many Koreans is that this book covers ancient East Asian culture which was initiated mainly by Dongyizu (東夷族). You can easily find evidence for this in the myths and the names of kings as well as mountains and fortifications described in the text. Next, since Dr. WangyYin (또仁) of the Paekje (百濟) period introduced QianZiWen and LunYu (論語) to Waeguk (倭國), many scholars have commented that the main theme of this book is Confucian. However, WuDi (武帝), the Liang (梁) dynasty king who let QanZiWen be published, was Buddhist himself, and he enacted laws prohibiting eating meat and drinking alcohol. In fact, many phrases alluding to Buddhist and Taoist thoughts may be found in the text. Finally, QianZiWen is not just a text of practical Chinese writings. Rather, it is excellent literature of contraposition. The style of contraposition of QianZiWen is quite unique and varied in its four character contraposition with one character, two character, and eight character variations. The most frequently repeated theme of QianZiWen is cultivating oneself(修身). On the basis of this, this classical book which consists of about ten themes systematically connected with each other is like a beautiful living body, vividly moving and working in our minds forever.