When Confucius met Cangjie

Chen Ding, trainee reporter of China Youth Daily and China Youth Network

Stills from the sitcom Confucius Meets Cangjie. Chen Ding/Photo

"Cangjie has four eyes, and he looks up at the momentum of kuixing, looks down at the image of the turtle and bird traces, and absorbs the beauty of all, and combines them into words." On the stage, Cangjie looked up at the sky and looked around the earth, so that the things of the world had their corresponding names, the sun, the moon, the stars, the clouds, the mountains, the rivers, the lakes, the sea... There is no way to pass on its meaning, so there is a book, and there is no way to see its form, so there is a painting. I saw Cangjie's left hand spreading his palms, his right hand writing, and his face showing joy. Birds and beasts, the application of artifacts, with their characteristics, draw graphics. From then on, creation could not hide its secrets, and spirits could not hide their forms. The words are complete, the sky is rain, the ghosts are crying for the night, and the dragons are hidden.

On the other side of the stage, Confucius slowly came to the "Heavenly Wood Duo, the Most Holy Ancestor, and the Master of All Ages", and his disciples were three thousand, seventy-two sages, and traveled around the world for fourteen years. He bowed and recited, "Threesomes, there will be my teacher." Master Cangjie, please teach more." Cangjie replied and asked, "What does the master see, why is the word beautiful?" Confucius said: "The characters see the heavens and the earth, the sun and the moon, the Wenji Society, the changes of the ancient and modern, and the same as the Wenda." Cangjie smiled and said, "Those who know me, master also." The beginning of the book deed, to replace the knot rope, the long river, intergenerational people. Confucius prayed again: "The deceased is like a sifu, who does not give up day and night." After you and me, there will be descendants! "Chinese characters have gone through thousands of years of long history, the stroke structure from cumbersome to concise, constantly changing, but the cultural internal factors they carry have never changed, blooming in the hands of generation after generation, witnessing the long history and splendid civilization of the Chinese nation." Inheriting Chinese character culture has become the common mission and responsibility of the sons and daughters of China.

On May 15, the 2021 "Belt and Road" annual Chinese character release event, co-sponsored by the China Public Relations Association, the Nishan World Confucianism Center and the Propaganda Department of the Jining Municipal Party Committee of the Communist Party of China, was held in the Holy Land of Qufuni Mountain in Jining, Shandong. This sitcom, titled "Confucius Meets Cangjie", creatively allows the two sages to have a dialogue spanning thousands of years, solidify the roots of culture, explore the source of development, and kick off the launch event.

Jining City, located in the southwest of Shandong Province, is known as "the hometown of Confucius and Mencius, the capital of canals, and the cultural jining", and is a holy city with profound oriental culture. Jining has flourished since ancient times, and the sages and sages have emerged, and is the hometown of the five great saints of Confucius, Mencius, Yanzi, Zengzi and Zisizi. Founded by Confucius, Confucianism, profound and far-reaching, has not only become the main vein of traditional Chinese culture and shaped the spiritual character of the Chinese nation, but also transcends national boundaries and runs all over the world, becoming an important symbol of oriental culture and an immortal heritage of the treasure house of world culture.

Calligraphy is like practice, concentration, meditation, the unity of characters and people, the intention is to write first, the pen is free to act, to convey the spirit. At the scene of the launch event, Duan Yupeng, advisor of Shandong Calligraphers Association, Xie Changwei, vice chairman of Shandong Calligraphers Association and chairman of Jining Calligraphers Association, Wu Feng, professor of Calligraphy College of Qufu Normal University, and Zheng Zhiqun, president of Jining Confucius and Meng calligraphy and painting institute, wrote "mutual learning", "mutual assistance", "mutual benefit" and "mutual communication", interpreting and enriching the meaning and extension of the Chinese character "mutual" in the 2021 "Belt and Road" annual Chinese characters.

With the continuous deepening of the "Belt and Road" initiative, the "Belt and Road" provides an excellent opportunity and platform for disseminating and promoting Chinese tea culture. At the event site, the 2021 "Belt and Road" annual Chinese characters were combined with "Chinese tea". On the stage, tea artists showed their tea art to the fullest, and professionals interpreted the cultural connotation represented by each tea art procedure, and finally through the arrangement and combination of tea cups, they presented the annual Chinese character "mutual", giving people visual enjoyment at the same time, showing the charm of Chinese tea culture.

Zhang Lucheng, vice chairman of the Culture and Art Committee of the China Public Relations Association, created a large painting on the spot, with the most important intentional symbol on the Silk Road, Hu Yang, as the theme, showing that he was born extraordinary for three thousand years, experienced vicissitudes without immortality, tasted and tempered without retreating without fear, implying that the Chinese nation has always been tenacious and resolute in the ups and downs of history. Through the thousand years of wind and sand in the life of poplar, the grand scene of exchanges and mutual learning between the four major civilizations on the Silk Road is still in front of us.

Kong Qiu traveled around the world, Lu Guo, Wei Guo, Cao Guo, Song Guo, Qi Guo, Zheng Guo, Jin Guo, Chen Guo, Cai Guo, Chu Guo... Disciples are all over the world, and the monarch is all admired. Under a thousand years, the king is like the sun and the moon. The Analects compiled by the disciples of Confucius are recited to this day. As an important carrier and communication bridge of Chinese culture, the Analects have played an important role in publicizing Chinese civilization and ideological values to the outside world since ancient times. At the event site, the Nishan World Confucianism Center officially launched the Chinese and foreign comparative translations of the Analects in Arabic, Czech, Mongolian, Portuguese and Spanish, and launched a total of 11 Chinese and foreign comparative translations in response to the "Belt and Road" initiative, carrying forward the excellent traditional Chinese culture, creating cultural symbols of the "Belt and Road", promoting cultural exchanges and mutual learning between civilizations in the "Belt and Road" countries and regions, and completing Confucius's unfulfilled wishes and aspirations of "traveling around the world".

The 2021 "Belt and Road" annual Chinese character release event brought Confucius and Cangjie to jining, where Chinese characters and Confucianism, the crystallization of the wisdom and thought of the Chinese nation, shone brightly.

Source: China Youth Daily