"Xunzi" has a cloud: "The good book is many, and the Cangjie one is the only one." "In the legends of the pre-Qin period, they always liked to attribute the invention of a certain matter to a certain ancestor, such as: the Flintstone clan who invented drilling wood for fire, the first to live in a tree house, and so on. Cangjie was revered by later generations as a "sage of character creation", and there are many popular legends in his body.
In ancient times, the way people recorded history was very crude, that is, knots were tied on ropes. Such a way of recording, at best, can only record a few numbers. Over time, the recorder has long forgotten what the numbers recorded in the knot represent.
At that time, the Yellow Emperor and the Yan Emperor were at war, and when the two tribal leaders were negotiating, the Yellow Emperor asked Cangjie to sort out the historical records of the Yandi tribe's invasion of the Yellow Emperor tribe in recent years. Cangjie, who is a Zuo Shiguan, finds many knots in the warehouse, but forgets what those strange knots represent.
With no bargaining chips, the negotiations ended in the defeat of the Yellow Emperor. Watching Emperor Yan grow away, the Yellow Emperor was very angry and blamed Cangjie, who was ineffective. Cangjie couldn't say anything bitter, and could only sulk at home. He was a stubborn man, and after this incident, Cangjie decided to invent a symbol that was more expressive than a knot, so as to record the past and make everyone aware of this symbol.
However, a person's strength is limited after all, Cangjie died an unknown number of brain cells, still did not figure out a reason. Cangjie's mother advised him to go out and find inspiration outside. In the later period, Cangjie crossed 7749 mountains, crossed 8864 rivers, and visited 9981 villages.
During this time, he asked a thousand wise men who were good at thinking, and finally had ideas in his mind.
Returning to his hometown, Cangjie immediately locked himself in his room and began to study the materials collected from the outside world. In order not to disturb himself, unless his inspiration dried up, Cangjie would not leave the door and even live separately from his wife at night when he slept.
Finally, with Cangjie's unremitting efforts, he created a total of so many words for a bucket of rapeseed. Of course, people's ability to understand is limited, so most people will not learn as many words as a few liters of rapeseed in their lifetime. Even Confucius, a sage with superior intelligence, could only learn seven liters of words.
So, what should be done with the words that are still three liters left, and these hard-won words cannot be left idle, right?
Later, when Cangjie traveled around the country, he spread these words to barbarian lands outside of China, so foreign countries also had scripts.
Cangjie felt that his words were almost made, but how to describe "quantitative satisfaction needs"?
He pondered for half a day, without any thought. Thinking that the Yellow Emperor was well-informed, he would definitely be able to give himself instructions.
Therefore, Cangjie came to the Yellow Emperor and asked him for advice. Although the Yellow Emperor had great wisdom, he did not yet have the concept of words in his mind. Thinking that Cangjie was doing a feat that was beneficial in the future, the Yellow Emperor did not resign, and he sat down with Cangjie to find a way.
The Yellow Emperor seemed to think of something, and asked Cangjie, "What do you think can satisfy you and what makes you dissatisfied?" ”
Cangjie honestly replied, "As long as I can eat enough and wear thick clothes, I will be satisfied with life." However, in the process of learning knowledge, even if you know more, you still feel insufficient. ”
The Yellow Emperor smiled and said, "Eating a full meal and wearing warm clothes are the most basic needs of being born as a human being." The thing that satisfies me is that everyone in the world can eat enough and wear warm clothes. Not only to be full, but also to eat well; not only to dress warmly, but also to dress well. You feel satisfied with life and only want to acquire knowledge because your quest is in writing, so you have no other ideas. I am the leader of the tribe, and I feel that the development of the tribe is far from enough. ”
Cangjie wondered, "Then what do you think can satisfy you?" ”
The Yellow Emperor said humorously: "If I discuss politics with the group of ministers, some people can't say anything for half a day, and my heart will feel superfluous." Even if there is only one nonsense, I will be annoyed. ”
One sentence opened Cangjie's train of thought and gave him inspiration. Cangjie immediately wrote two words on the ground, one is "enough" and the other is "enough". Immediately, Cangjie asked the Yellow Emperor: "I think these two words are most appropriate to describe the satisfaction of needs, but I don't know which is more appropriate?" ”
The Yellow Emperor said: "These two words are good, as long as people can understand the meaning, it is enough." In this way, Cangjie, with the help of the Yellow Emperor, created the words "enough" and "enough".
For the rest of his life, Cangjie was always making and teaching characters.
However, who is not a sage? Even if it is the word Saint Cangjie, sometimes it is inevitable that mistakes will go wrong.
Such an event is recorded in the Orthographic Passage.
One day Cangjie taught his students four words: 姦, Good, Out, and Heavy.
Cangjie wrote four words on the ground and explained to the students: "Three women huddled together, chattering like sparrows, looking suspicious, they must be saying something against morality, for the sake of prostitution." A woman and a man are combined with each other, raising eyebrows, respecting each other as guests, such a marriage is good. Layers of mountains, one mountain is located on top of another mountain, is for the sake of out. After hiking thousands of miles, tired, like carrying a thousand weights, this is the weight. ”
The students carefully recorded the words taught by the teacher, and who knew that one student suddenly stood up and said to Cangjie: "Teacher, I think your words are not made correctly." ”
Cangjie listened, afraid of misleading people, and hurriedly checked the structure of these four words. Cangjie found that there was nothing wrong with the structure of these four words, so he asked the student curiously: "Tell me, why are these four words wrong?" ”
The student pointed to the words on the ground and analyzed them in turn: "Three women can talk together to show that their relationship is harmonious, and they are not necessarily discussing something dirty, so 'whore' should be read as good." As for the union of a man and a woman, the two will certainly do something, how can such a private thing be written out of good meaning, is this not 'rape'? One mountain peak is stacked on top of another, and I think that's called 'heavy'. As for the journey of a thousand miles, it is bound to leave the place where you have lived for a long time, so this word should be read 'out'. ”
Cangjie analyzed and found that the students were very reasonable in their judgment. He has always been called a wise man and a sage, but he did not know that today he has planted his head in front of his students. Cangjie praised the students and lamented that there were successors to the inheritance of words.
However, the four words made by Cangjie are wrong after all, and if there is a mistake, it must be changed. Cangjie immediately came to the Yellow Emperor, hoping that he would announce the world and correct these four words one by one.
However, the Yellow Emperor said: "The word is only a symbol used to refer to the meaning, and it does not have any meaning in itself, as long as everyone agrees with the symbol, it can be given meaning." In my opinion, people already agree with your text, so there is no need to change it. ”
Although Cangjie followed the instructions of the Yellow Emperor and did not change these four words, the student who pointed out the mistake later went to Goryeo to teach characters. The student very carefully corrected the words "good" and "姦".
In addition to the four words above, it is said that Cangjie also has two error-making words, that is, the words "shooting" and "short".
During the time when Cangjie locked himself in his home to make words, he sometimes felt bored and lost the mood of making words. In order to mobilize his emotions, Cangjie came to the school field to watch the soldiers train. Cangjie stared at the words every day, and his eyes were a little bad, so he saw a small shadow moving in the distance of the school yard, but he didn't know what it was.
Cangjie walked for half a day, and finally saw the shadow clearly, it turned out that it was a small pawn who was pulling a bow and shooting arrows. The pawn took a lunge, maintaining the posture of pulling the bow, as if aiming at something. Cangjie glanced at it, and there seemed to be small beasts moving in the grass in the distance. Because the little beast refused to stop, the soldiers refused to release arrows. Finally the beast slipped into the depths of the grass and disappeared, and the soldiers had to put away their bows and arrows.
Cangjie took inspiration from the soldiers, and he immediately wrote two words on the ground with a wooden stick, one was "shoot" and the other was "short".
Years later, Cangjie reminded the students of what had happened and taught them the two words. After writing as usual, Cangjie said to the student: "The arrow is an arrow, the commission is the posture of the soldier crouching, when pulling the bow, you must control the center of gravity of the body, crouching down will naturally appear shorter." The lower the center of gravity, the more able to use the strength of the waist, the faster and more accurate the arrow emitted, which is shooting. ”
Still a student who corrected Cangjie's mistakes at that time, he discovered Cangjie's mistakes again.
So the student said to the teacher, "Teacher, I think these two words you invented are wrong again." Committed to the target, should be read as a shot. The body shrinks to an inch, which is called short. Cangjie smiled and praised the student's seriousness again. However, before Cangjie had already asked the Yellow Emperor to explain, he understood that the word was just a symbol used to represent meaning, so this time Cangjie was not more real.
Of course, the legend of Cangjie is only made up by later generations, and many details cannot withstand scrutiny.
Modern archaeologists have found that The ancestors of China began to use oracle bones to record information at least 8,000 years ago, and that writing was widely used in carving during the Yangshao culture. Writing is accumulated in the long-term evolution of human beings, and it is not the work of one person. During the Yellow Emperor's period, there was no concept of a historical official, so it is not established that Cangjie was a left historian under the Yellow Emperor.
"The jaw has four eyes, looking up at the heavens. Because of the traces of the li turtle, the shape of the calligraphy was determined. Creation cannot hide its secrets, so the sky rains; The spirit monster cannot hide from its form, so the ghost cries at night. It is also the time, the calligraphy and painting are the same body and not divided, and the image is like the creation and the slightest. There is no way to pass on its meaning, so there is a book, there is no way to see its form, so there is a painting, and the meaning of the saints of heaven and earth is also. ”
The legendary Cangjie has two pairs of eyes and has various magical superpowers, which is also the artistic imagination of posterity.
However, not excluding such a possibility, a man named Cangjie sorted out the characters and made outstanding contributions to the birth of Chinese characters.
Resources:
[Xunzi, Shang Shu Prologue, Shiben Zuo, Genealogy of Ten Thousand Surnames, Vol. 52]