In the southern part of Luoyang, Henan Province, there is a place called Fengtai Temple, which is said to be the birthplace of Cangjie’s invention of Chinese characters. According to legend, Cangjie was a man with a square head, a large face, and a dragon-like appearance, with four eyes on his face. His eyes were sharp and bright, like flashes of lightning.
Cangjie was a capable official serving under the Yellow Emperor, who entrusted him with managing livestock and food supplies, tasks Cangjie handled efficiently. At the time, there were no written characters, so Cangjie devised a method of recording events using knots tied in strings. Different colors of strings and knots represented different types of livestock and food, making it easy for people to understand.
Impressed by Cangjie’s organizational skills, the Yellow Emperor assigned him even more responsibilities. However, as the number of tasks grew, the knotting system became inadequate. Eventually, Cangjie began drawing circles and attaching shells to the strings to represent various things. Despite using this method for many years, the system still couldn’t handle the increasing complexity of records. Cangjie was determined to find a more efficient way to document and manage all the growing affairs, but he couldn’t think of anything better.
One day, while accompanying the Yellow Emperor on a hunting expedition, Cangjie observed a quarrel among the Emperor’s men at a crossroads. Some wanted to follow tiger tracks, while others wished to follow bear tracks. The dispute was quickly resolved when Cangjie, inspired by the tracks of the animals, realized that he could create symbols to represent the things he managed.
Later, Cangjie retreated to a high platform on the banks of the Wei River, where he focused on creating characters. After a long night of reflection, he came up with a set of symbols to represent various objects. From then on, he used these symbols to record information, which proved to be much more convenient than the previous system of knots and circles. Cangjie presented his method to the Yellow Emperor, who was greatly impressed. The Emperor saw the potential of this new writing system and ordered Cangjie to create a symbol for every object and to teach everyone how to use them for communication.
Realizing the magnitude of the task, Cangjie spent a long time observing and analyzing different things, creating many new symbols. Over time, he came to call these symbols “characters.” With the Emperor’s support, Cangjie traveled to various tribes, teaching them how to use written characters. This greatly facilitated communication, making people’s lives easier. Everywhere he went, Cangjie was warmly welcomed, and some even began to worship him as an idol.
As Cangjie became more famous, he grew somewhat arrogant and less diligent in teaching the characters. When the Yellow Emperor learned of this, he consulted an elder in the tribe who was over 120 years old to come up with a solution.
One day, after Cangjie had finished teaching in a tribe, the elder stayed behind while the others left. Cangjie, curious, asked the elder why he hadn’t left yet. The elder explained that despite Cangjie’s characters being widely known, he, being old, still had trouble understanding a few characters, and he requested further clarification.
Cangjie, pleased to have such a respected elder asking for help, agreed to explain. The elder then pointed out a discrepancy in the characters Cangjie had created: “The characters for horse, donkey, mule, and ox all have four legs, but the character for ox only has one tail. Why is that?” Cangjie was stunned, as he had used the “fish” character to represent the ox, and the “ox” character to represent fish, but in his explanation to others, he had confused the two.
The elder continued, “Also, the character for ‘heavy’ is said to represent a distance of a thousand miles, but why is it pronounced the same as the character for ‘weight’? And the character for ‘exit’ is described as two mountains together, but why do you pronounce it like ‘to go out’?” Cangjie was deeply embarrassed. He realized he had made careless mistakes, and his proud demeanor had led to these errors.
Kneeling before the elder, Cangjie confessed his mistakes and promised to correct his ways. The elder reassured him, “Your contributions to the creation of characters are irreplaceable, but you must remain humble and not let your pride interfere with your work. The mistakes have already spread among the tribes, but you should focus on continuing to create and spread more characters correctly.”
Cangjie thanked the elder and, from then on, became more diligent in his work. Before creating a new character, he would carefully check and refine it, often consulting others to ensure its accuracy before teaching it to the public.
In honor of Cangjie’s contributions to the creation of writing, the place where he developed these characters was named the “Phoenix Perch Writing Platform” (凤凰衔书台), and during the Song Dynasty, a temple and tower were built there, known as Fengtai Temple.