From Children’s Instructional Textbook to Missionary Tool: the Publication History of the Christian Three-Character Classic from 1823 to 1880

In 1823, the Chinese-language Christian children’s instructional textbook, the Three-Character Classic, first appeared. Through continuous revising and repeated publication, it was gradually transformed into a tract for propagating religion to the common populace of China, ultimately becoming one of the longest-used Christian tracts with the greatest number of editions in the history of the nineteenth century. This chapter discusses two main branches of the development the Chinese-language Christian Three Character Classic that were published after 1823, as well as some regional dialect versions of the book, showing how the history of these editions reflect the evolution of the tract’s use, confirming the historical status of the book and its author, Walter Henry Medhurst.