Cang Xie is a legendary figure in ancient China, who is said to be the historian of the Yellow Emperor and the inventor of Chinese characters.
Legend has it that Cang Xie was born with "two eyes and four eyes". There are only three people recorded in China history books, namely Yu Shun, Cang Xie and Xiang Yu. Yu Shun is a sage of humility and filial piety, while Cang Xie is a sage of literature and Xiang Yu is a sage of martial arts.
Cang Jie
The legend of "Cangjie creating characters" has been widely circulated in the Warring States period. It is recorded in Huai Nan Zi Ben Jing: "Cang Xie wrote a book in the past, but it rained heavily and ghosts cried at night". It is recorded in the preface to Shuo Wen Jie Zi: "Cang Xie wrote a book at the beginning, and Gai Yi was like a pictograph, so it was called a text; After that, the form and sound are beneficial to each other, that is, the word. 」
Zhang Yanyuan's "The Story of Famous Paintings in Past Dynasties: The Origin of Narrative Paintings" explains: "You have four eyes and look up at the celestial phenomena. Because of the trace of the tortoise, the shape of the calligraphy is determined. Nature can't hide its secrets, so it rains a lot; Ghosts can't hide from their shapes, so ghosts cry at night. At that time, calligraphy and painting are the same body without division, just like the system of creation, but still slightly. There is no book to convey its meaning, no painting to see its shape, and the meaning of heaven and earth saints. 」
It is generally believed that the creation of Chinese characters by Cang Xie is only a legend, but he may be the organizer of Chinese characters.
There is a legend in the history that Cang Xie is the historian of the Yellow Emperor. After the Yellow Emperor unified China, he felt that it was far from satisfying the requirements to write notes by tying knots, so he ordered his historian Cang Xie to find a way to create words. So, Cang Xie built a house and lived on a high platform on the south bank of the Wei River at that time, and devoted himself to creating words. However, he thought hard for a long time and didn't make any words. As luck would have it, one day, while Cang Xie was thinking, he saw a phoenix flying in the sky, and something in his mouth fell right in front of Cang Xie. Cang Xie picked it up and saw a hoofprint on it, but Cang Xie couldn't recognize what it was, so he asked a hunter who happened to be coming. The hunter looked at it and said, "This is the hoofprint of the brave dog, which is different from the hoofprint of other animals. I know the hoofprint of other animals at a glance. "Cang Xie was inspired by the hunter's words. He thought that everything has its own characteristics. If we can grasp the characteristics of things and draw images, everyone can know them. Isn't this a word? Since then, Cang Xie has carefully observed the characteristics of various things, such as the sun, the moon, the stars, the clouds, mountains, rivers, lakes and seas, as well as various animals and birds, and applied utensils, and according to their characteristics, drew graphics and created many pictographs. Over time, Cang Xie made more words. Cang Xie dedicated these pictographs he made to the Yellow Emperor, who was very happy. He immediately called the chiefs of Kyushu and asked Cang Xie to teach them these pictographs, so these pictographs began to be applied. In order to commemorate Cangjie's contribution to word-making, later generations called Nancangjie, Xinzheng County, Henan Province, the place where characters were made "the Phoenix Bookstand", and a temple was built here in the Song Dynasty, named "Fengtai Temple".