Cangjie

Cangjie
Portrait of Cangjie
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese倉頡
Simplified Chinese仓颉
Hanyu PinyinCāngjié
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinCāngjié
Bopomofoㄘㄤ   ㄐㄧㄝˊ
Gwoyeu RomatzyhTsangjye
Wade–GilesTsʻang1-chieh2
IPA[tsʰáŋ.tɕjě]
Yue: Cantonese
Yale RomanizationChōngkit
JyutpingCong1kit3
IPA[tsʰɔŋ˥.kʰit̚˧]
Southern Min
Tâi-lôTshong-khiat (lit.)
Tshng-khiat (col.)
Vietnamese name
Vietnamese alphabetThương Hiệt
Chữ Hán倉頡
Korean name
Hangul창힐
Hanja倉頡
Transcriptions
Revised RomanizationChanghil
Japanese name
Kanji蒼頡
Hiraganaそうけつ
Transcriptions
Revised HepburnSōketsu
Kunrei-shikiSouketsu

Cangjie [tsʰáŋ.tɕjě] (Chinese: 倉頡) is a legendary ancient Chinese figure said to have been an official historian of the Yellow Emperor and the inventor of Chinese characters.[1] Legend has it that he had four eyes, and that when he invented the characters, the deities and ghosts cried and the sky rained millet. He is considered a legendary rather than historical figure, or at least not considered to be the sole inventor of Chinese characters. Cangjie was the eponym for the (c. 220 BCE) Cangjiepian proto-dictionary, the Cangjie method of inputting characters into a computer, and a Martian rock visited by the Mars rover Spirit, and named by the rover team.[2]

  1. ^ Zhang, Shudong (2005). 《中华印刷通史》 [A General History of Chinese Printing] (in Chinese). Taipei: XingCai Literary Foundation. pp. ch.3, sec.1. ISBN 957-99638-3-5.
  2. ^ "為火星目標地中文命名 王阿蓮博士為世界華人爭得殊榮" [Mars destinations given Chinese names, Dr. Wang gets honor for all Chinese people] (in Chinese). 聖路易時報 (St. Louis Chinese American News). 2006-02-23. Retrieved 2008-03-07.