Cangjie input method

Cangjie input method
Coding of "倉頡輸入法" (i.e. Cangjie method) in traditional Chinese characters
Traditional Chinese倉頡輸入法
Simplified Chinese仓颉输入法
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinCāngjié Shūrùfǎ
Gwoyeu RomatzyhTsang Jye Shuruhfaa
Wade–GilesTs'ang1-chieh2 Shu1-ju4-fa3
IPA[tsʰáŋtɕjě ʂúɻûfà]
Yue: Cantonese
Yale RomanizationChōngkit Syūyahpfaat
JyutpingCong1kit3 Syu1jap6faat3
Southern Min
Hokkien POJChhong-kiat Su-ji̍p-hoat
Eastern Min
Fuzhou BUCChŏng-kĭk Sṳ̆-ĭk-huák

The Cangjie input method (Tsang-chieh input method, sometimes called Changjie, Cang Jie, Changjei[1] or Chongkit) is a system for entering Chinese characters into a computer using a standard computer keyboard. In filenames and elsewhere, the name Cangjie is sometimes abbreviated as cj.

The input method was invented in 1976 by Chu Bong-Foo, and named after Cangjie (Tsang-chieh), the mythological inventor of the Chinese writing system, at the suggestion of Chiang Wei-kuo, the former Defense Minister of Taiwan. Chu Bong-Foo released the patent for Cangjie in 1982, as he thought that the method should belong to Chinese cultural heritage.[2] Therefore, Cangjie has become open-source software and is on every computer system that supports traditional Chinese characters, and it has been extended so that Cangjie is compatible with the simplified Chinese character set.

A Chinese keyboard in Shek Tong Tsui Municipal Services Building, Hong Kong with Cangjie hints printed on the lower-left corners of the keys. (Printed on the lower-right and upper-right corners are Dayi hints and Zhuyin symbols respectively.)

Cangjie is the first Chinese input method to use the QWERTY keyboard. Chu saw that the QWERTY keyboard had become an international standard, and therefore believed that Chinese-language input had to be based on it.[3] Other, earlier methods use large keyboards with 40 to 2400 keys, except the Four-Corner Method, which uses only number keys.

Unlike the Pinyin input method, Cangjie is based on the graphological aspect of the characters: each graphical unit, called a "radical" (not to be confused with Kangxi radicals), is re-parented by a basic character component, 24 in total, each mapped to a particular letter key on a standard QWERTY keyboard. An additional "difficult character" function is mapped to the X key. Keys are categorized into four groups, to facilitate learning and memorization. Assigning codes to Chinese characters is done by separating the constituent "radicals" of the characters.

  1. ^ A spelling used as filename on ETen Chinese System.
  2. ^ Chu, Chyi-Hwa (朱麒華) (1 February 2012). "教育科技的專利與普及". National Academy for Educational Research e-Newsletter (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 25 August 2022. Retrieved 14 December 2022.
  3. ^ Chu Bong-foo (朱邦復). "智慧之旅". 開放文學 (in Traditional Chinese). Archived from the original on 19 October 2017. Retrieved 8 June 2017.