Horses (马), cattle (牛), sheep (羊), fowl (鸡), dogs (犬), and pigs (豕): These are the six domesticated animals, and the topic of this episode on the Three Character Classic (三字经). This verse follows on from our last episode, in which we talked about another group of six – the edible grains (rice 稻, sorghum粱, beans 菽, wheat 麦, glutinous millet 黍, millet 稷).

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.