"The pioneering of Chinese characters, the ten thousand years of Danxin, the ten thousand years of great achievements; the creation of the history of civilization, one person in white water, one person in eternity." ——Wang Shenglin
This couplet praises a man named Cangjie, and many people may know his name, but they don't know much about his story.
In other words, Cangjie is a "prehistoric" figure, and he is not recorded in detail in many historical classics, only in some rare ancient books.
Now, the Chinese characters we use are made by him, and although they have been evolving for thousands of years, they have not been interrupted, which shows the depth of Cangjie's contribution to Chinese culture.
It is worth mentioning that it is said that after Cangjie made the characters, there was also a phenomenon of ghosts crying, what is the matter? How can the creation of words cause such a vision of heaven and earth, and today we will talk about it.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="3" > different child - Cangjie</h1>
According to some historical records, Cangjie was born during the time of the Yellow Emperor, and when he was born, his head was very large, and his eyes were different from others- like a basket bucket, with two pupils and four eyes.
For this child, the neighbors said that he was a monster, but Cangjie's mother did not think so, and regarded him as a treasure and carefully raised him.
In other words, Cangjie has been very smart since he was a child, and the friends around him are very obedient to him. When he grew up, some people saw that Cangjie was quick-witted and intelligent, and would recommend him to the Yellow Emperor.
The Yellow Emperor saw that Cangjie's appearance and temperament were not ordinary, and he also felt that he was a very talented person, so he made him an official in charge of sacrifice.
The sacrifices of the Three Emperors and Five Emperors period are very different from the current sacrifices, when the sacrifices were not only important, but also the process was also very cumbersome, and there were many things that needed to be recorded.
At first, for the problem of recording, Cangjie relied on super memory. Later, when there were more things, he recorded it by knotting the straw rope, but this method did not last long.
As time went on, more and more knots were tied in the grass rope, and it was very troublesome to distinguish. In this case, Cangjie wanted to find a better way to record his work.
As something happened, Cangjie learned something from it, and the word was created under such circumstances.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="10" > a fortuitous inspiration</h1>
One day Cangjie was walking in the wilderness when he suddenly saw a hunter crouching at an intersection, as if analyzing something. So, the curious Cangjie went over to inquire.
Coming to the hunter, Cangjie asked him what he was doing, and the hunter said he was hunting. However, because it is a fork in the road, it is necessary to analyze where the prey has gone through footprints.
At the same time, there are many footprints at the fork in the road, so it is necessary to analyze the type of footprints to identify what animals are, and then find out which road their prey has run.
After hearing these words, Cangjie suddenly realized, since each footprint represents an animal, why can't it represent a thing through this "mark"?
Thinking of this, Cangjie continued to think about it, even the hunter left without knowing it. Soon after, Cangjie walked out of thinking, did not care where the hunter was going, and returned home directly.
After returning home, Cangjie began various studies, and he found that many things could be replaced by patterns. As a result, Cangjie began to travel all over the world, according to what he saw and heard, every day he buried his head in creation, drawing pictures of mountains and rivers, birds, animals, fish, insects, grass and wood utensils.
Subsequently, through various processes, various patterns are created to represent everything in the world. Finally, he used these symbols in practice, recording a variety of different things and things.
As a result, a recording method like Cangjie is not only simple but also accurate. In this way, the most primitive writing was invented, and it is better to say that it is a "symbol" than a word.
Later, after the evolution of successive dynasties and dynasties, the script has experienced oracle bones, hieroglyphs, seals, cursive writing, calligraphy, etc., and has such a look as it is now, which can be described as a long history and profound depth.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="18" > corn and ghosts crying</h1>
Shortly after Cangjie finished writing, suddenly a strange scene appeared in the sky for a hundred years, usually it was raining and snowing, but at that time it was "corn".
There are two explanations for this matter, one is that the heavens reward Cangjie, so the next corn to praise his contribution.
The other is that the heavens are warning people not to forget to cultivate in order to learn Chinese characters, and wait until there is no food to eat in the next year. In this way, the people at that time also defined that day as "valley rain", which means to be ploughed.
Through the research of some experts now, the so-called "corn" may be what we often call "hail", but the particles are relatively small.
In general, after the success of Cangjie's character creation, it caused a lot of repercussions at that time, so many stories will be handed down, and the version that has been disseminated is also strange.
It is worth mentioning that in addition to the sudden drop of "corn" in the sky, after the success of Cangjie's character creation, there was also a strange phenomenon of "ghost crying", and there were often little ghosts secretly crying at night.
Why are these little devils crying? It turned out that if people were skilled in writing, then the bad things that these ghosts and monsters had done would be easily recorded, so that it would be more convenient to punish, and they couldn't help but cry when they thought of it.
In order to avoid such a thing, some powerful ghosts planned to get rid of Cangjie, so they joined forces with the river god at that time and wanted to drown Cangjie with water.
Coincidentally, Cangjie had just received an invitation at that time, and he went to the banquet. In this way, after escaping this disaster, it can be said that it is a great difficulty not to die.
In the following time, Cangjie continued to create words representing various meanings through observation, and this kind of writing was also more and more popular with the public and further popularized.
For a country and a nation, the written word is a leap-forward evolution from "barbarism" to "civilization", and its importance is no less important than the emergence of "fire".
Looking back on the past, it was precisely because of the writing that the Yellow Emperor's tribe developed faster than other tribes, gradually becoming a powerful country and eliminating the barbaric tribes.
It is no exaggeration to say that Cangjie's creation of characters can be regarded as the beginning of human historical civilization, after all, with words, civilization can continue, evolve and develop, otherwise we still cannot get rid of the barbaric life of Ru Mao drinking blood.
Perhaps, the so-called corn from heaven, ghosts and monsters crying, etc. are simply non-existent things, and people spread it only to commemorate Cangjie's contribution to mankind.
From this point, we can also see how important and popular "Cangjie Characters" are, and it is the cornerstone of the development of the entire Chinese culture for thousands of years.