Cangjie (input method)
The Cangjie input method ( Chinese 倉 頡 輸入 法 / 仓 颉 输入 法 , Pinyin Cāngjié Shūrùfǎ , often incorrectly also Changjie or Cangjei), named after the mythical inventor of the Chinese script, Cang Jie , is an input method for the Chinese script on the computer. In contrast to other input methods such as pinyin , which enter the Chinese characters using phonematic transcription, with the Cangjie input method a character is entered through its graphic structure.
The method was invented by Zhu Bangfu in 1976 . Originally intended for long characters , it was later expanded to include short characters .
It can be found on most computers without installing additional software.
construction
Basic shapes (keyboard layout)
In the Cangjie input method, characters are not always divided in the same way as in the traditional division . Attempts are made to keep the traditional division as possible, but the system must be adapted to the practical conditions, such as B. the 26 keys of a normal keyboard (see the section on second characters ). In Cangjie there are two different groups: The first is the group of "basic forms" (Chinese 基本字形 jīběn zìxíng ). It consists of 24 characters (plus two functional keys) and corresponds to the keyboard layout. The basic characters replace the Latin letters on the keyboard.
Furthermore, the basic characters are often divided into groups according to the hierarchy of the Latin alphabet. There are hardly any practical reasons for this, however, since the alphabetical order on the keyboard is irrelevant anyway. The grouping is based on historical or calligraphic concepts, from which it can be concluded that this may be an honorable reference (or a gag).
| group | button | Surname | Basic association |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Philosophical group
(哲理 類zhélǐlèi ) |
A. | 日rì sun | |
| B. | 月yuè moon | Three-sided border, open at the bottom 冂 | |
| C. | 金jīn metal (Venus or fourth element) | ||
| D. | 木mù wood (Jupiter or first element) | ||
| E. | 水shuǐ water (Mercury or fifth element) | often appears as 氵 (三點水sāndiǎnshuǐ “three-point water”) | |
| F. | 火huǒ fire (Mars or second element) | often in the form of ⺣ (四 點火sìdiǎnhuǒ “four-point fire”) | |
| G | 土tǔ earth (Saturn or third element) | ||
| 2. stroke group
(筆畫 類bǐshūlèi ) |
H | 竹zhú bamboo | line falling to the lower left links ( 彎wān or ender xié ) |
| I. | 戈gē halberd, weapon | Point 丶 ( 點diǎn ) | |
| J | 十shí ten | Crossing of horizontal and vertical lines 十 (交jiāo ) | |
| K | 大dà great | Crossing of two diagonal lines 乂 (叉chā ) | |
| L. | 中zhōng middle | vertical line 丨 ( 豎shù or 縱zòng ) | |
| M. | 一yī one | horizontal line 一 ( 横héng ) | |
| N | 弓gōng bow | Hook ⼅ ( 鉤gōu ) | |
| O | 人rén human | Downward sloping line ㇏ ( ender nà ) | |
| 3. Body part group
(人體 類réntǐlèi ) |
P | 心xīn heart | also appears as modifications 忄 or 㣺 |
| Q | 手shǒu hand | Two horizontal lines cross a vertical one 
|
|
| R. | 口kǒu mouth | Never has anything inside the square. For this one uses 田tiān "Acker" | |
| 4. Character shape group
(字形 類zìxínglèi ) |
S. | 尸shī corpse | Three-sided border, open to the left コ or to the right ⼕ |
| T | 廿niàn twenty | Two vertical lines cross a horizontal 卄 | |
| U | 山shān mountain | Three-sided border, open at the top ⼐ | |
| V | 女nǚ woman | Hook to the left ㄑ | |
| W. | 田tiān Acker | Above all, it also stands for four-sided, closed borders ⼞ (i.e., in contrast to 口kǒu "mouth", it always has to border something) | |
| Y | 卜bǔ divination | Combination of a point and a line 亠 | |
| 5. Overlap / Complexity | X | 重 / 難zhòng / nán Overlap / complexity key | (1) Separation of overlapping character codes,
(2) Code for a "difficult to form character" |
| 6. Special character key | Z | Ｚzéi | In general: Key for special characters and punctuation marks (e.g.。 ,、, 「」, 『』). |
Second forms (extended layout)
The second group includes the "second forms" (Chinese 輔助 字形fúzhū zìxíng ). Since the basic forms are far from sufficient to reproduce all elements of the Chinese script, a set of secondary forms is assigned to each basic character. These are associations with the shape of the basic signs. For example, the basic form 水shuǐ (“water”) is traditionally associated on the one hand with the radical of the sign 氵, on the other hand it is also associated with the element 又 because of its form, although this is a stylized hand. Therefore it would actually be better stored under the sign 手shǒu ("hand"). However, Cangjie is an input method that relates to the shape of the characters. Therefore, the second forms are more likely to be linked to a basic character because of the similar form - even if this often means a break with the traditional font structure. In general, it can be said that with the Cangjie method, the character form is more important than the sign's meaning or its origin. The example of the basic form 手 shows that all second forms have the common feature that one vertical line is crossed by two horizontal lines (cf. the section “basic association” in the list above). For this reason, 又 was added to a symbol more similar in shape.
A total of 87 second forms result from the 24 basic forms. They are sufficient to reproduce the varied repertoire of lines in Chinese writing. The following list now contains an enumeration of all basic forms (red) and the secondary forms assigned to them (black).
application
Basic rules
Knowing the basic rules of writing is an important prerequisite for writing with Cangjie. The system has the great advantage of a much higher accuracy, which in contrast to other input methods such as Pinyin or Zhuyin Fuhao enables users to write almost blindly. The major disadvantage, however, is that the system is very “unforgiving”, i. That is, tiny mistakes lead to wrong characters or no characters at all.
Writing order
The order of the strokes follows the same principles as in Chinese calligraphy:
- left to right,
- from top to bottom, and
- from the outside to the inside.
| character | Cangjie | Keys |
|---|---|---|
| 告gào | 竹 土 口 | HGR |
| 早zǎo | 日 十 | AJ |
| 桔xié | 木 土 口 | DGR |
| 國guó | 田 戈 口 一 | WE M |
| 暗àn | 日 卜 廿日 | AYTA |
A deviation occurs, however, when lines cross a closed border (e.g. 囗) or an open border (e.g. 匚 冂 凵 几). While the border would have preferred with the traditional writing direction, it is exactly the opposite with Cangjie:
- Lines that enter the border or cross it from the left or above are written first, then the border.
- Lines that emerge to the right or downwards are only written afterwards.
Number of keys
You can use a maximum of five keys to construct a character. This rule serves primarily to save time and effort as possible; without a restriction there would be the risk of getting completely lost with complex characters in combinations of sometimes 20 keys. In that case, Cangjie would be pretty useless. Some examples:
| character | Cangjie (with restriction) |
Hypothetical structure (without limitation) |
|---|---|---|
| 響xiǎng | 女中 卜 廿日 (5) | 女女 竹 戈 日 女 戈 弓中 卜 廿日 (11) |
| 影yǐng | 日 火 竹 竹 竹 (5) | 日卜口火 竹 竹 竹 (7) |
| 鼚chāng | 土 水 尸 一 女 (5) | 土口 廿 十水 尸 一 女 (8) |
| 髒zàng | 月 月 廿一 廿 (5) | 月尸十月廿一弓戈心廿 (10) |
| 關guān | 日 弓 女 戈 廿 (5) | 日中日弓女女戈女女戈廿 (11) |
Advanced rules
Due to the fact that a character cannot be meticulously entered, it is necessary to establish certain rules so that users know which key combination to use to get to the desired character. Basically, the characters are divided into two groups:
Geometrically united forms
These signs create a visual context and cannot be split into a left or right part. Only four keys are used for these characters, namely the first , the second , the third and the last .
| character | Cangjie | structure |
|---|---|---|
| 鹵lǔ | 卜 田 戈戈 | 田戈卜戈大戈戈 |
| 臺tái | 土 口 月 土 | 土 口 月一 戈土 |
| 雨yǔ | 一 中 月 卜 | 中月一卜卜 |
Geometrically divisible shapes
This group of characters is relatively important because it makes up the majority of all characters. Characters in this group can be broken down into two or more units, which are then formed using the following rules:
- Characters that consist of two units:
1st unit: first and last key
2nd unit: first , second and last key
- Characters consisting of three or more units:
1st unit: first and last key
2nd unit: first and last key
Last unit: last key
| character | division | Cangjie (character) |
units | Cangjie (unit) |
Structure (unit) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 詩shī (2 units) |
⿰ | 卜口 土木 戈 | 言 (1: left) | 卜口 | 卜一一口 |
| 寺 (2: right) | 土木 戈 | 土木 戈 | |||
| 義yì (2 units) |
⿱ | 廿 土 竹 手 戈 | ⺷ (1: above) | 廿 土 | 廿 土 |
| 我 (2: below) | 竹 手 戈 | 竹 手 戈 | |||
| 蹌qiāng (2 units) |
⿰ | 口 一 人 戈 口 | ⻊ (1: left) | 口 一 | 口中卜一 |
| 倉 (2: right) | 人 戈 口 | 人 戈日 竹口 | |||
| 謝xiè (3 units) |
⿲ | 卜口 竹 竹 戈 | 言 (1: left) | 卜口 | 卜一一口 |
| 身 (2: center) | 竹 竹 | 竹難竹 | |||
| 寸 (3: right) | 戈 | 木戈 | |||
| 羅luó (3 units) |
|
田中 女 火 土 | ⺫ (1: above) | 田中 | 田中中 |
| 糸 (2: bottom left) | 女 火 | 女戈火 | |||
| 隹 (3: bottom right) | 土 | 人土 | |||
| 闊kuò (2 units) |
⿵ | 日 弓 水 竹 口 | 門 (1: border open at the bottom) | 日 弓 | 日中日弓 |
| 活 (2: remainder) | 水 竹 口 | 水 竹十口 | |||
| 解jiě (3 units) |
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|
弓 月 尸 竹 手 | ⻆ (1: left) | 弓 月 | 弓手月 |
| 刀 (2: top right) | 尸 竹 | 尸 竹 | |||
| 牛 (3: bottom right) | 手 | 竹手 | |||
| 通tōng (2 units) |
⿺ | 卜 弓 戈 月 | 辶 (1: left and bottom margin) | 卜 | 卜 |
| 甬 (2: remainder) | 弓 戈 月 | 弓 戈手月 |
Abbreviations
Some characters skip the basic rules and are entered in abbreviated form. These are only a handful of characters, but they can vary between the different editions of Cangjie. Most of them are quite common characters, the structure of which is obviously too problematic to be written with conventional rules. (The characters marked with * are only used as components in other characters, i.e. they are not their own characters.)
| Character / component |
Cangjie 2 | Cangjie 3 | Cangjie 5 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 隹 | 人 土 | 人 土 | 人 土 |
| 門 | 日 弓 | 日 弓 | 日 弓 |
| 鬥 | 中 弓 | 中 弓 | 中 弓 |
| ⻖ * | 弓 中 | 弓 中 | 弓 中 |
| 气 | 人 山 | 人 弓 | (人 一 弓) |
| 鬼 | 竹 戈 | 竹 戈 | (竹山 戈) |
| 虍 * | 卜 心 | 卜 心 | 卜 心 |
 *
|
女 戈 | 女 戈 | 女 戈 |
| 吂 * | 卜口 | 卜口 | 卜口 |
Special keys
X key (complex characters)
Another group of characters ignores the basic rules system. The first (and in some cases also the last key) of these components is entered, and whatever should still be included is quickly replaced by the 難 / 重 key (X key). It is not just a random "wildcard" key that saves you from having to use the other combinations (the wildcard key described below is used for this ), but is limited to a few, previously defined components. In contrast to the exceptional cases described above, the X key is used to abbreviate extremely complex stroke sequences and is intended to take a load off the users' shoulders (or fingers).
| character | Cangjie | example |
|---|---|---|
| 臼jiù | 竹 難 | 寫 (十 竹 難 火) |
| ? jū | 竹 難 | 與 (竹 難 卜 金) |
| 肅sù | 中 難 | 蕭 (廿 中 難) |
| 齊qí | 卜 難 | 齎 (卜 難 月 山金) |
| 身shēn | 竹 難 竹 | |
| 慶qìng | 戈 難 水 | |
| 鹿lù | 戈 難 心 | 塵 (戈 心土) |
| ? zǐ | 中 難 竹 | 姊 (女中 難 竹) |
| 龜guī | 弓 難 山 | ? (口 弓 難 山) |
| 黽mǐn | 口 難 山 | 鼈 (火大 口 難 山) |
| 兼jiān | 廿 難 金 | 蒹 (廿 廿 難 金) |
Z key (special characters)
The Z key is primarily used to enter special characters, such as various punctuation marks and other markings. Their layout is disadvantageous, however, because the special characters are entered rather arbitrarily by means of four-digit codes and do not provide the user with any clues, as is the case with the characters.
The four-digit code consists of the following components: The first two keys are always ZX (Ｚ 難), the third key is either A (日), B (月) or C (金), and the last key can be freely selected between all of them Letters can be chosen (without Z).
| A. | B. | C. | D. | E. | F. | G | H | I. | J | K | L. | M. | N | O | P | Q | R. | S. | T | U | V | W. | X | Y | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ZXA_ | ， | 、 | 。 | ． | ‧ | ； | ： | ？ | ！ | ︰ | ... | ‥ | ﹐ | ､ | ﹒ | · | ﹔ | ﹕ | ﹖ | ﹗ | ｜ | - | ︱ | - | |
| ZXB_ | ︳ | ╴ | ︴ | ﹏ | （ | ） | ︵ | ︶ | ｛ | ｝ | ︷ | ︸ | ［ | ］ | ︹ | ︺ | 【 | 】 | ︻ | ︼ | 《 | 》 | ︽ | ︾ | 〈 |
| ZXC_ | 〉 | ＾ | ﹀ | 「 | 」 | ﹁ | ﹂ | 『 | 』 | ﹃ | ﹄ | （ | ） | ｛ | ｝ | 〔 | 〕 | ｀ | ＇ | " | ＂ | 〝 | 〞 | ‵ | ′ |
In newer versions, this function has become superfluous, as the punctuation keys next to the letters display lists of similar punctuation marks through drop-down menus. Here the principle of recognition was implemented, which is actually the typical method of Cangjie.
Wildcard button
In some versions, the * key (Shift-8) can be used to simplify input. You only have to know and enter the first and last key of the character you are looking for. So 張zhāng is actually written 弓 尸 一 女, but can also be "tracked down" under 弓 ＊ 女. All characters are listed with 弓 at the beginning and 女 at the end. The number of buttons does not matter.
In some versions, the Z key is used instead of the * key.
Overlapping rules
It gets a little more complicated with signs where two or more different steps could apply, i. i.e. where rules overlap. Therefore, there are some rules of thumb that should take precedence among the rules.
Conciseness (精簡)
If two different decompositions are possible, then the shorter one applies. For example, the character 王wáng could be broken down into 一 十一 on the one hand, and 一 土 on the other. Because 一 土 uses fewer elements, it is the standard.
| 王 | 主 | 光 | 前 | 容 | 共 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| correct | not correct | correct | not correct | correct | not correct | correct | not correct | correct | not correct | correct | not correct | |
| structure | 一 土 | 一 十一 | 亠 土 | 丶 一 土 | ⺌ 一 乚 | ⺌ 一 丿 乚 | 䒑 月 丨 亅 | 丷 一月 丨 亅 | 宀 八 人口 | 丶 冖 八 人口 | 廿八 | 卄 一 八 |
| Keys | 一 土 | 一 十一 | 卜 土 | 戈 一 土 | 火 一山 | 火 一 竹山 | 廿 月中 弓 | 金 一月 中 弓 | 十 金 人口 | 戈 月 金 人口 | 廿 金 | 廿一 金 |
Complexity over simplicity (先 繁 後 簡)
If a character can be broken down in two different ways, which are also of the same length, then the more complex variant is preferred to the simpler one. For example, the character 夫fú can be broken down into the following components: 十大 or 手 人. 手 人 is used because the first component 
(written by 手) contains more dashes than 十.
| 夫 | 青 | 巴 | 毛 | 受 | 半 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| correct | not correct | correct | not correct | correct | not correct | correct | not correct | correct | not correct | correct | not correct | |
| structure |
㇏
|
十 人 |
一月
|
十 土 月 | 日 乚 | 㔾 亠 | 丿乚
|
丿 十七 | 爫 冖 又 | 丿 ⺌ 冖 又 | ⺌
|
丷
|
| Keys | 手 人 | 十大 | 手 一月 | 十 土 月 | 日 山 | 尸 卜 | 竹 手 山 | 竹 十 心 | 月 月 水 | 竹 火 月 水 | 火 手 | 金 手 |
Special features of the character shape (字型 特徵)
This rule takes into account that the character form should be rendered fragmented. For this reason, different, separate segments are to be preferred, but crossovers and overlaps should generally be avoided. It should be noted that interfaces must not be located at intersections or corners .
|
|
|
|
|
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| correct | not correct | correct | not correct | correct | not correct | correct | not correct | correct | not correct | correct | not correct | |
| structure | ⺌ 木 | 木 丷 | 月 凵 | 月 一 | 丨 冂 大 | 大 冂 | 十 乂 日 | 土 丿 日 | 十 中 肀 亅 | 十 口 肀 亅 | 勹 乂 乂 | 勹 丿 丿 丶 |
| Keys | 火 木 | 木 金 | 月 山 | 月 一 | 中 月 大 | 大 月 | 十大 日 | 土 竹 日 | 十 中 中 弓 | 十 口中 弓 | 心 大大 | 心 竹 竹 戈 |
literature
- 李亮 生 『倉 頡 輸入 一週 通』 . Taipei 2007, ISBN 957-717-846-4 .
- Ken Lunde: CJKV Information Processing . O'Reilly, Sebastopol (California) 2008, ISBN 978-0-596-51447-1 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.cbflabs.com/book/ocj5/ocj5/02.htm
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from September 28, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://www.fed.cuhk.edu.hk/readwrite/typing/special_2.htm
- ↑ 盛安邦 Sheng Anbang: “小學生 運用 倉 頡 輸入 法 三 原則 的 困難” ("Three Principle Problems Students Have When Using Cangjie"). (Date of access: July 10, 2011). Archive link ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://zh.wikibooks.org/wiki/ 倉 頡 輸入 法 / 取 碼 原則 (access date: July 11, 2011)
- ↑ http://zh.wikibooks.org/wiki/ 倉 頡 輸入 法 / 取 碼 原則 (access date: July 11, 2011)
