Cangjie (Tsang-chieh; simplified Chinese: 仓颉; traditional Chinese: 倉頡; pinyin: Cāngjié; Wade–Giles: Ts'ang¹-chieh²) is a legendary figure in ancient China (c. 2650 BC), claimed to be an official historian of the Yellow Emperor and the inventor of Chinese characters.^[1] Legend has it that he had four eyes and four pupils, 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 sole inventor of Chinese characters. The Cangjie input method, a Chinese character input method, is named after him. A rock on Mars, visited by the Mars rover Spirit, was named after him by the rover team.^[2]

Legend of character creation[edit]

Bronze sculpture of Cangjie by Lee Lawrie, 1939, at the Library of Congress's John Adams Building, Washington, D.C.

Shortly after unifying China, the Yellow Emperor, being terribly dissatisfied with his "rope knot tying" method (e.g., Quipu) of recording information, charged Cangjie with the task of creating characters for writing. Cangjie then settled down on the bank of a river, and devoted himself to the completion of the task at hand. Even after devoting much time and effort, however, he was unable to create even one character. One day, Cangjie suddenly saw a phoenix flying in the sky above, carrying an object in its beak. The object fell to the ground directly in front of Cangjie, and he saw it to be an impression of a hoof-print. Not being able to recognize which animal the print belonged to, he asked for the help of a local hunter passing by on the road. The hunter told him that this was, without a doubt, the hoof print of a Pixiu, being different from the hoof-print of any other beast alive. His conversation with the hunter greatly inspired Cangjie, leading him to believe that if he could capture in a drawing the special characteristics that set apart each and every thing on the earth, this would truly be the perfect kind of character for writing. From that day forward, Cangjie paid close attention to the characteristics of all things, including the sun, moon, stars, clouds, lakes, oceans, as well as all manner of bird and beast. He began to create characters according to the special characteristics he found, and before long, had compiled a long list of characters for writing. To the delight of the Yellow Emperor, Cangjie presented him with the complete set of characters. The emperor then called the premiers of each of the nine provinces together in order for Cangjie to teach them this new writing system. Monuments and temples were erected in Cangjie's honor on the bank of the river where he created these characters.^[1]

INTRODUCTION

Cuneiform writing reminded the ancients of bird tracks in mud.

 Pagans of the Isis bloodline valued wisdom as the highest human virtue. The "Sacred Ibis" was an enduring wisdom symbol in Pagan religion. One might wonder why they chose the ibis as a symbol to represent the god of wisdom and learning. The common pun that someone's handwriting looks like "chicken tracks" has truly ancient origins. The earliest enduring forms of writing were impressions made in clay. The ibis is a wading bird that probes for food in shallow waters along streams and ponds. Its footprints in the mud of its habitat reminded the scribes of cuneiform clay tablet writing.  
 The Pagan's concept of wisdom was divided into distinctly different branches of wisdom. The educated wisdom of scribes was regarded differently from the agrarian wisdom of farmers or the military wisdom of soldiers. Farmers, soldiers, and "tradesmen" of all kinds were illiterate classes of people. Heru, the hawk god, was the patron god of soldiers who did not need to be educated in the literary arts. When armies went on military campaigns, professional scribes went along as accountants, message writers, and etc. The common feature of armies subservient to civilian governments in Western civilizations may have sprung originally from this ancient literary tradition. 
 Thoth was the patron god of all the scientific, literary, and bureaucratic professions that required writing skills. They chose the ibis as the symbol for the patron god of the educated literary branch of wisdom because its footprints looked like cuneiform clay tablet writing.
Priest scribes of the Thoth school were linguistic architects and wordsmiths. They designed languages and formulated words. 
 According to conventional language theories, our modern languages "evolved" from prehistoric languages by chance. There was no design or designer involved in the process. That isn't true. Our languages are man-made structures in much the same way that our houses are man-made structures. Our houses may be built of wood from forests that evolved out of the ecosystem of the planet, but the houses did not evolve out of the forest by chance. 
 For the most part, constructors of houses refined and formulated naturally existing materials to create the products from which they built houses. Ironsmiths refined nails out of raw iron ore. Sawyers sawed lumber from naturally existing trees. They built their houses on foundations of field stone mortared together to serve their purpose. Scribes of the Thoth school designed and constructed languages by similar processes. Our major languages are structures built partly of linguistic materials from prehistorical times and partly from the creations of Thothian genius. 
  "Thoth, the inventor writing and of numbers"-->  For instance, Thothian scribes used the names of gods and the functions of those gods to formulate words and give them meaning. Thoth was the all around god of wisdom and learning. Our word thought is derived from the name of Thoth. Our word hero is derived from the name of Heru, the god of wisdom in action. Our word assure is derived from the name of Assur, the founding father god of Pagan civilization. Those are very direct god name words that derive their sounds and meanings from the names and functions of Pagan gods. Many words in many languages are derivatives of god names. They're not always as direct and obvious as these examples are.


Herodotus, Histories 2. 75. 1-4 (trans. Godley) (Greek historian C5th B.C.) :  "There is a place in Arabia not far from the town of Bouto (Buto) where I went to learn about the Winged Serpents (ophies pteretoi). When I arrived there, I saw innumerable bones and backbones of serpents: many heaps of backbones, great and small and even smaller. This place, where the backbones lay scattered, is where a narrow mountain pass opens into a great plain, which adjoins the plain of Aigyptos (Egypt).  Winged serpents (ophies pteretoi) are said to fly from Arabia at the beginning of spring, making for Egypt; but the ibis birds encounter the invaders in this pass and kill them. The Arabians say that the ibis is greatly honored by the Aigyptoi (Egyptians) for this service, and the Aigyptoi give the same reason for honoring these birds."
Herodotus, Histories 3. 107. 1 - 110.1 :  "Again, Arabia is the most distant to the south of all inhabited countries: and this is the only country which produces frankincense and myrrh and casia and cinnamon and gum-mastich. All these except myrrh are difficult for the Arabians to get. They gather frankincense by burning that storax which Phoinikes (Phoenicians) carry to Hellas; they burn this and so get the frankincense; for the spice-bearing trees are guarded by small Winged Snakes (ophies hypopteroi) of varied color, many around each tree; these are the snakes that attack Aigyptos (Egypt). Nothing except the smoke of storax will drive them away from the trees . . .   So too if the vipers and the Winged Serpents (ophies hypopteroi) of Arabia were born in the natural manner of serpents life would be impossible for men; but as it is, when they copulate, while the male is in the act of procreation and as soon as he has ejaculated his seed, the female seizes him by the neck, and does not let go until she has bitten through. The male dies in the way described, but the female suffers in return for the male the following punishment: avenging their father, the young while they are still within the womb gnaw at their mother and eating through her bowels thus make their way out. Other snakes, that do no harm to men, lay eggs and hatch out a vast number of young. The Arabian Winged Serpents do indeed seem to be numerous; but that is because (although there are vipers in every land) these are all in Arabia and are found nowhere else.   The Arabians get frankincense in the foregoing way."
Aelian, On Animals 2. 38 (trans. Scholfield) (Greek natural history C2nd A.D.) :  "The Black Ibis does not permit the Winged Serpents (Ophies Pterotoi) from Arabia to cross into Aigyptos (Egypt), but fights to protect the land it loves."

Aelian, On Animals 16. 41 :  "Megasthenes states that in India there are . . . snakes (ophies) with wings, and that their visitations occur not during the daytime but by night, and that they emit urine which at once produces a festering wound on any body on which it may happen to drop."


The Sacred Ibis (Threskionis aethiopicus) once lived in Egypt and is depicted in many ancient Egyptian wall murals and sculptures. It is also found as mummified specimens at many burial sites and played a significant religious role, in particular during the Late and Ptolemaic periods. The ibis represented the god Thoth, god of wisdom, knowledge and writing, and was considered the herald of the flood[1]. It was of practical use to villagers as it helped to rid fish ponds of water snails that contained dangerous liver parasites[2]. However, it is now extinct throughout Egypt because of gradual aridification through swamp drainage and land reclamation[3].