The Three Character Classic, commonly known as San Zi Jing, also translated as Trimetric Classic, is one of the Chinese classic texts. It was probably written in the 13th century and is mainly attributed to Wang Yinglin during the Song dynasty. It is also attributed to Ou Shizi (1234–1324).

The Chinese classics or canonical texts are the works of Chinese literature authored prior to the establishment of the imperial Qin dynasty in 221 BC. Prominent examples include the Four Books and Five Classics in the Neo-Confucian tradition, themselves an abridgment of the Thirteen Classics. The Chinese classics used a form of written Chinese consciously imitated by later authors, now known as Classical Chinese. A common Chinese word for "classic" literally means 'warp thread', in reference to the techniques by which works of this period were bound into volumes.