Cangjie Characters
The Chinese historical figure we are going to get to know today is the creation of Chinese characters, the saint Cangjie.
Cangjie, according to the ancient book Shuowenjiezi, Cangjie was the Huangdi Zuo historian. Inspired by the footprints of birds and beasts, he created primitive hieroglyphs and was revered as a saint who made characters.
5000 years ago, Huangdi City held a Zen ceremony on the top of Mount Tai for the leader of the tribal alliance to establish the world. Under the emperor, many capable ministers led the people to a happy life. One of them was named Cangji. This Cangjie was born with a natural vision. He looked different. There were two pupils in his eyes, and there were four pupils in both eyes. This is called double pupil.
In the tribe, Cangjie was responsible for managing livestock and food. He is smart, he is dedicated to his work, and soon he is familiar with the livestock and food he manages, he has a special heart, and he never makes mistakes! But slowly, the number of livestock and food is increasing, and the quantity is changing every day. You can't remember it just by your head. What can you do? Cangjie is in trouble, he thinks of ways all day and night. He finally came up with an idea. He used a variety of ropes of different colors to indicate that various animals and grains were knotted on the rope to record the quantity. This is called a knotted note! But this method doesn't work for a long time. It is easy to tie a knot when the number is increased. When the number is reduced, it is troublesome to untie the knot. This is still not difficult to help the clever Cangjie. He came up with making a circle on the rope, and hanging all kinds of shells on the circle. This method worked pretty well. After several years of using it, I never made a mistake. Seeing that Cangjie was so capable, the emperor had to manage more and more things. Now, the problem of hanging shells on a rope cannot be solved completely.
On this day, Cangjie met several old hunters at a three-way intersection. They were arguing about which way to go. An old hunter insisted on going east and said that there is an antelope in the east. An old hunter will be able to chase the deer within a short distance to the north, and there is an old hunter who says that there are two tigers in the west. Don't miss the opportunity! Cangjie is wondering, how do the old hunters know which direction there is prey? I asked, it turns out that the old hunters are the footprints of beasts on the flat ground, and a light flashed in Cangjie's mind. Since a footprint can represent a beast, why can't I use different symbols to represent the difference in my management? Of things? As soon as he thought of this, Cangjie couldn't restrain the ecstasy in his heart, and immediately ran home and began to create various symbols. Sure enough, through these symbols, he managed things in an orderly manner. The emperor knew about it and admired Cangjie greatly.
Let Cangjie go to various tribes to teach this method. This kind of symbol formed the earliest writing. On the day that Cangjie created the writing, two strange things happened. Suddenly the millet fell from the sky during the day. It's raining. At night, people vaguely heard ghosts crying.
As a result, Cangjie is revered as a character-making saint, and Wenzuer's annual Guyu solar term has the custom of offering sacrifices to Cangjie. In fact, the birth of characters in China was much earlier than Cangjie's writing. Archaeological experts have discovered carved symbols more than 8,000 years ago in a Neolithic site in Henan, Jiahu site, more than 3,000 years earlier than Cangjie. The Chinese characters we are using are the most widely used characters in the world, one of the oldest characters in the world, and the longest continuous use of characters so far. After the vicissitudes of life, youth stays forever. During the ancient Shang Dynasty, people will Engraving the text on the tortoise shell and beast bones is the oldest mature text in China! At that time, the world was disputed, and the princes' kingdoms were separated, and the characters were different. After Qin Shihuang unified the world, his prime minister Li Si unified the characters and formed a short biography. After more than 2,000 years, Chinese characters were written in official script, regular script, running script, cursive script, etc., and a unique Chinese art calligraphy was born from this. Ancient Chinese characters are the treasure of Chinese civilization and the spiritual home of the Chinese nation. It connects history and the future, and it also connects the hearts of every Chinese.
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