Cang Jie
Cangjie , also known as Chongkit ( Cantonese pronunciation ; Chinese 倉 頡 / 仓 颉 , Pinyin Cāngjié , IPA ( standard Chinese) [ tsʰaŋ˥ tɕiɛ˧˥ ], W.-G. Ts'ang 1 Chieh 2 , Yale Chōng Kit , IPA (Cantonese) tsʰɔːŋ˥ kʰɪt˧ ), is a legendary figure in ancient China (circa 2650 BC). He is assigned the roles of historian of the legendary Yellow Emperor (2697-2597 BC or 2696-2598 BC) and the co-invention of the Chinese characters . The Cangjie input method for Chinese characters is named after him.
Legend
The myth of Cang Jie is passed down in texts from the Warring States Period and - with significantly more detail - from the Han dynasty . However, they are overall incomplete and partially contradict each other. Cangjie is consistently described as a person of outstanding ability. He is said to have had four eyes and was said to be able to write when he was born.
According to mythology, Cangjie was the chronicler of the Yellow Emperor . To record the events, he used strings of various lengths and colors that he tied together. Over time, however, it became too difficult to remember which knot and which cord should represent which event. Cangjie therefore looked for an easier way to record historical events and human thoughts. He asked other wise people and eventually retired to a cave where he made up the first characters . He is therefore considered to be the author of the original forms of numerous signs. Then he started teaching the signs to other people. Since Cangjie had developed far too many signs, no one could learn all the signs, even wise Confucius couldn't. So, out of disappointment, he threw the signs that no one could learn into other countries. This was the beginning of other writing systems.
It is said that Cangjie's invention of writing was such a great event, and that writing was given such magical power that millet fell from the sky and the spirits screamed. However, scholar Gao Yu noted in the 3rd century that millet fell from the sky because the gods knew that people would neglect agriculture and that the spirits were shouting because people's scriptures would accuse them of wrongdoing. It is also said that Cangjie came into conflict with the creator goddess Nuwa because he had created many characters with the radical 女 , nǚ - "woman", which denote bad things. To appease Nuwa, Cangjie created other characters with this radical, but they denote good things such as 好 , hǎo - "good".
During the Song Dynasty , Cangjie became the patron of the imperial scribes ( Xu Li ), he was now called King Cang and a large festival was held in his honor every fall. Even today, Cangjie is revered across China. Cangjie temples, tombs, or other places dedicated to his worship can be found throughout the country. The most important of these are the Tomb and Temple of Cang Jie in Baishui , Shaanxi Province . Also in Shaanxi, a festival is celebrated annually to commemorate the millet rain in connection with the invention of writing. As part of these celebrations, plays are performed and steamed bread in various forms is offered. When visiting a Cangjie temple, Chinese students touch special stone tablets in the hope of getting a beautiful handwriting.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Yang Lihui and An Deming: Handbook of Chinese mythology . ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara 2005, ISBN 1-57607-806-X , pp. 84-86 .