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What are the folklore of Cangjie?
According to legend, Cangjie [jié] was born with “two pupils and four eyes”. There are only 9 people with double pupils in Chinese history books, Yu Shun, Cangjie, Xiang Yu, Chong’er, Gao Yang, Lu Guang, Yu Guluo, Guan Yu, and Li Yu.
According to legend, Cangjie “began to make a book deed, to replace the rope”. Before that, people tied ropes to keep track of events, that is, a big knot for major events, a small knot for small events, and a series of knots for connected events. Later, it developed to use a knife to carve symbols on wood and bamboo as a note. With the development of history and the gradual progress of civilization, things are complicated and there are many famous objects.
The methods of knotting and carving wood are far from being able to meet the needs. This has an urgent requirement to create words. The Yellow Emperor’s time was a period of many inventions and creations in ancient times. At that time, not only sericulture was invented, but also boats, carts, bows, mirrors, and rice-cooking pots and retorts were invented. Under the influence of these inventions, Cangjie also determined to create come up with a text.
One year, Cangjie went on a hunting tour in the south, and was inspired by “the prints of sheep and horses’ hooves”. Cangjie thought about it day and night, observed everywhere, and saw the distribution of the stars in the sky, the appearance of the mountains and rivers on the ground, the traces of birds, beasts, insects and fish, and the shapes of plants and utensils. the meaning of each symbol. He used symbols to piece together several paragraphs according to his own wishes, and showed them to others. After his explanation, he could understand them clearly. Cangjie called this symbol “character”.
Cangjie’s history books recorded from the rope knot provided Huangdi with wrong historical facts, which caused Huangdi to lose the border negotiation with Yandi. Afterwards, Cangjie resigned from office ashamed and traveled around the world, a good way to visit and record historical events. Three years later, he returned to his hometown, Yangwu Village, Baishui, and lived alone in a deep ditch. He gave these symbols a name, and he called them words.
Cang surname. Its meaning is “one person above the king, one person next to the king”.
According to legend, Cangjie was an official under the Yellow Emperor. At that time, the officials did not appear majestic, just like ordinary people, but the division of labor was different. The Yellow Emperor assigned him to manage the number of livestock in the pen and the amount of food in the village.
Cangjie is a very smart man. He works hard and does his best. He quickly became familiar with the animals and food he manages. But slowly, the storage of livestock and food is gradually increasing and changing, and it is impossible to remember with the head alone. At that time there was no writing, and no paper and pen. How to do it? Cangjie was in trouble.
Cangjie worked all day and night to find a way to tie knots on the ropes, using ropes of various colors to represent various animals and food, and the knots tied with the ropes to represent each number. But over time, it doesn’t work. This increased number is convenient to tie a knot on the rope, and when the number is decreased, it is troublesome to untangle a knot on the rope.
Cangjie thought of making circles on the rope and hanging all kinds of shells in the circles to replace the things he was in charge of. Add a shell when it increases, and remove a shell when it decreases. This method works very well, and has been used for several years.
Seeing that Cangjie was so capable, the Yellow Emperor asked him to manage more and more things. The number of sacrifices every year, the distribution of hunting, and the increase or decrease of tribesmen were all called Cangjie to manage. Cangjie was worried again, and it was no longer worth adding ropes and hanging shells.
How can we not go wrong? On this day, he was participating in a group hunting, and when he came to a fork in the road, several old people were arguing about which way to go. An old man insisted on going east, saying there were antelopes; an old man wanted to go north, saying that he could catch a herd of deer not far ahead; an old man wanted to go west, saying that there were two tigers, and if they were not killed in time, they would miss the opportunity. .
When Cang Jie asked, it turned out that they were all looking at the footprints of wild beasts on the ground. Cangjie suddenly rejoiced: since a footprint represents a beast, why can’t I use a symbol to represent what I am in charge of? He happily ran home and started creating symbols to represent things. Sure enough, manage things wisely.
When the Yellow Emperor knew about it, he greatly appreciated it and ordered Cangjie to teach this method to various tribes. Gradually, the usage of these symbols was widely spread. And just like that, the text is formed. Cangjie coined the word, Huangdi valued him very much, everyone praised him, and his reputation was getting bigger and bigger. Cang Jie’s mind became a little hot, and his eyes slowly moved upwards to the top of his head and his heart.
No one looked down on him, and his words became sloppy. When these words reached Huang Di’s ears, Huang Di was very annoyed. In his eyes, he could not allow a servant to become bad. How can Cangjie realize his mistake? The Yellow Emperor summoned the eldest old man around him to discuss. The old man’s long beard had more than 120 knots, indicating that he was more than 120 years old. The old man pondered for a while, then went to find Cangjie alone.
Cangjie was teaching people from various tribes how to read. The old man sat silently at the end, listening as seriously as everyone else. After Cang Jie finished speaking, everyone else left, but the old man stayed in the same place. Cangjie was a little curious and stepped forward to ask him why he didn’t leave. The old man said, “Cangjie, the characters you made are already well-known to every household, but I am old-fashioned, and I am still confused about a few characters. Will you teach me again?”
Cangjie saw that such an old man respected him so much, he was very happy, and urged him to speak quickly. The old man said: “The characters for ‘horse’, ‘donkey’, and ‘mule’ that you made all have four legs, right? And cows also have four legs, so how come the characters for ‘ox’ don’t have four legs? What about the next tail?” When Cangjie heard this, he was a little panicked: when he originally made the word “fish”, he wrote it like “ox”, and when he made the word “ox”, it was written like “fish”. I blame myself for being careless and actually teaching it upside down.
The old man went on to say: “You made the word ‘weight’ to say that there are thousands of miles away, and the word ‘chu’ should be pronounced for a long distance, but you taught people to pronounce the word ‘weight’ for weight. Conversely, the two seats The word for ‘out’ that the mountains are combined together should be the word for ‘weight’, but you teach it to be the word for ‘out’. These words are really difficult for me to figure out, so I have to ask you.”
At this time, Cangjie was so ashamed that he knew that he had made a big mistake because of his pride. These words have been taught to various tribes, spread all over the world, and cannot be changed. He hurriedly knelt down and wept bitterly to express his repentance.
The old man took Cangjie’s hand and said sincerely: “Cangjie, you created the word, so that the experience of our older generation can be recorded and passed on. You have done a great deed, and people from generation to generation will remember you. You can’t be arrogant and arrogant!”
Since then, Cangjie has always scrutinized the meaning of every word he coined, and he can still use it to solicit people’s opinions, and he never dared to be careless. After everyone said yes, it was settled, and then gradually spread to each tribe.
There is also a legend that Cangjie succeeded in creating characters, and something strange happened. That day, the rain was like rain, and the ghosts were heard crying at night. Why is it raining like rain? Because Cangjie created words, which can be used to convey thoughts and record things, it is naturally worth celebrating.
But why do ghosts cry? Some people say that because of writing, people’s wisdom is growing, and people’s virtues are becoming more and more distant, deception and cunning, competition and killing are born from this, and there will never be a peaceful day in the world, and even ghosts will have no peace, so ghosts will cry.
