Cangjie Legend
01 · Historical Records
Through a thousand years of circulation and evolution the episodes have gone from simple to complex and the themes from single to rich, with a relatively strong literary quality. The Cangjie-making-characters legend is the ancient forebears' figurative explanation of the origin of Chinese characters; it shapes the typical figure of the culture hero Cangjie, shows a striking complex of writing worship, contains the psychological structure and mode of thought of our ancient forebears, and displays the nation's wisdom, the precious spirit of willing devotion and great creativity, with a relatively high historical-cultural value.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Baishui county is the place where, according to legend, Cangjie lived and was buried, and it has left behind a great many remains and relics connected with the Cangjie legend. The Baishui Cangjie legend tells mainly of the complex process by which Cangjie made characters. In high antiquity Cangjie, the left historian of the Yellow Emperor, resigned office because of the inconvenience of recording events by knotted cords and sought a good means of recording. Day after day he looked up to observe the heavens, looked down to examine the earth's veins, seized the characteristics of the images of all things and grasped the spirit within the myriad phenomena, then modelled forms according to kinds and created the simple, easily remembered Chinese pictographic script—the bird-and-insect script. The Baishui Cangjie legend has a strong colouring of primitive thought, and much of its content has the character of a fusion of legend and myth. Its episodes are full of romance; on the whole they accord with the logic of real life, yet through such fictional means as exaggeration, coincidence and imagination they construct strange and marvellous events. The Cangjie legend is first seen in documents of the Warring States period; by the Qin and Han it had spread abroad, and thereafter the historical materials on Chinese characters of successive ages often mention it.
Cangjie Makes Characters and the Bird-and-Insect Script
The complex process of Cangjie's making of characters in the Baishui Cangjie legend.
The Cangjie Temple and Cangjie's Tomb at Baishui
The relatively well-preserved Cangjie temple and tomb within Baishui county.
The Bird-Trace Inscription Stele
The inscribed stele at Baishui connected with the Cangjie legend.
The Custom of Sacrificing to Cangjie at Grain Rain
The Cangjie sacrificial activities handed down through the ages in the Baishui area.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Cangjie legend is folk oral literature taking Cangjie's making of characters as its main subject; it circulates mainly in the provinces of the Yellow River basin and in Shaanxi chiefly in the Guanzhong and southern Shaanxi regions, with Baishui county as its centre, its influence reaching the whole country and also spreading in overseas Chinese communities and in Korea, Japan, Singapore and Australia. At the same time the legend also includes such content as using and revering characters, subduing demons and monsters, matching wits and courage, the sage manifesting himself, wood and stone changing form, and explaining the solar terms and place names, expressing the local working people's gratitude to and worship of Cangjie. Its telling style, full of pride, and the Qin opera melodies and dialect slang it employs, fully display its ancient, plain and bold local character. Since the pre-Qin the local working people have transmitted it generation after generation, continually perfecting and enriching it so that it spreads more widely and its influence goes deeper. When people tell the Cangjie legend to the next generation vividly in dialect, they also pass on from generation to generation the spirit of innovation, struggle and devotion.
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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Baishui county is the place where, according to legend, Cangjie lived and was buried; within its borders the Cangjie temple, Cangjie's tomb and the bird-trace inscription stele are relatively well preserved, and the sacrificial activities of successive ages have continued unbroken. The Cangjie legend centres on the worship of writing and embodies the people's gratitude for the achievement of creating characters; it is of reference value for the study of ideas about the origin of Chinese characters, folk belief and local cultural identity, and has a wide influence locally and even in Chinese communities at home and abroad.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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