After the

slight detour in the last episode, our discussion on the Three Character

Classic (三字经) returns to the main theme of the second part of the book: the arrangement

of the natural world. As temperatures plunge across northern China, your hosts

say goodbye to autumn (秋) and hello to winter (冬) as they discuss the neverending cycle of the

seasons, and look ahead longingly to the return of spring (春) and summer (夏). And we round out the episode with a friendly disagreement about the

teaching methods of Confucius.

 

The三字经 was written by the Song Dynasty (宋朝) scholar Wang Yinglin (王应麟). This 1,134 character text was one of

the first textbooks used by students, and provided lessons on education,

morality and ethics, science, literature, and history.