Cāng Jié 倉頡 The UN Chinese Language Day April 20th CANG JIE TODAY IN THIS PRESENTATION YOU WILL LEARN ABOUT CANG JIE Learn about the father of written Chinese characters THE ORIGIN OF CHINESE CHARACTERS ID: 815798
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Slide1
The Inventor of Chinese Characters
Cāng
Jié 倉頡
The UN Chinese Language Day
April 20th
Slide2CANG JIE TODAY
IN THIS PRESENTATION
YOU WILL LEARN…
ABOUT CANG JIE
Learn about the father of written Chinese characters.
THE ORIGIN OF CHINESE CHARACTERS
Learn how Chinese characters were created.
Discover how chops and seals were made and how they are used.
CHINESE CHOPS
See how
Cang
Jie
is used commonly today.
Slide3UN World Chinese Language Day – 20
th
April
The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) established World Chinese Language Day to promote cultural diversity and multilingualism.
April 20 was eventually chosen because the Chinese people celebrate
Guyu
, literally “millet rain,” around this time in honour of
Cang
Jie
. The
Guyu
festival, also a solar agricultural term, came to be because legend declares that when
Cang
Jie
created Chinese characters, heavenly secrets were revealed. This made the deities and spirits cry and their tears fell as drops of millet from the heavens.
Language Days at the United Nations seek to celebrate multilingualism and cultural diversity as well as to promote equal use of all six official languages throughout the Organization (what are the other 5 official languages?)
Slide4WRITTEN CHINESE
LANGUAGE & CHARACTERS
Chinese characters are considered the “pearl” of Chinese culture and the most accurate representation of the depth and meaning of the Chinese language. They are also seen as an enduring record of the amazing history of the Chinese people.
Today, Chinese characters are hand-written in various calligraphy styles or printed based on a number of data input methods developed for typewriters and, later, computers. One of the most popular methods, particularly for the input of traditional characters, is called
Cangjie
.
Slide5ABOUT
CĀNG JIÉ
Cang
Jie
is a legendary cultural hero in Chinese folklore who is credited with inventing the Chinese writing system.
Cang
jie
is thought to have once been an historian to Huangdi (the emperor). As the court historian and record keeper, he was asked by the Yellow Emperor to devise a method for recording important information.
According to an ancient Chinese legend, the Yellow Emperor assigned
Cang
Jie
, the court historian, a monumental task. He was to create a method to improve record keeping; laborious rope-knot tying was no longer adequate for a large new empire
.
Slide6DEVELOPING
THE SCRIPT
Cang
Jie
was said to have four eyes capable of piercing through to the depths of even the greatest mysteries to discern the truth. Because of this remarkable ability, he was believed to be wisdom incarnate.
Cang
Jie
was travelling in the mountains contemplating his task when he came upon a tortoise. Intrigued by the lines on her shell,
Cang
Jie
took a closer look and found a pattern in the lines and meaning in the pattern.
This led to an intense study of nature and the development of pictograms, or hieroglyphs, which conveyed the meaning of the objects they reflected.
Cang
Jie
then assigned words to the pictograms.
Cang
Jie
created rules and a system for a script
,
with six forms of chops (seals). When he created the script, he formed characters resembling existing objects or activities, calling them
wen
文
"patterns", and characters composed of symbol and sound, calling them
zi
字 "
derivates".
He collected these shapes and created characters that are called guwen
古文
"ancient script".
Slide7CĀNG JIÉ:
ITS USE TODAY
Today
Cang
Jie
is the name given to a system for inputting Chinese characters onto a computer using a standard keyboard. It is named after the legendary inventor of Chinese characters.
Unlike pinyin,
Cang
jie
is based on the graphological aspect of the characters: each basic, graphical unit is represented by a basic character component, 24 in all, each mapped to a particular letter key on a standard QWERTY keyboard.
It has become an ‘open source’ software – free for anyone to use.
Slide8CHINESE
CHOP OR SEAL
The Chinese chop or seal is used to sign document, artwork, and other paperwork. The Chinese chop is most commonly made from stone, but can also be made in plastic, ivory, or metal.
Chinese seals are used by individuals as signatures for many kinds of official documents, such as legal papers and bank transactions. Most of these seals simply bear the owners name and are called
姓名印
(
xìngmíng
yìn
). There are also seals for less formal uses, such as signing personal letters. And there are seals for artworks, created by the artist and which add a further artistic dimension to the painting or calligraphic scroll.
The Chinese chop is used with a red paste called
朱砂
(
zhūshā
).
The chop is pressed lightly into the
朱砂
(
zhūshā
) then the image is transferred to paper by applying pressure to the chop. There may be a soft surface beneath the paper to ensure a clean transfer of the image. The paste is kept in a covered jar when not in use to prevent it from drying out.
Slide9WHAT TO DO
NEXT?
Activities
Take the Quiz
Create your own Chinese chop (seal) for your name using half of a potato (or similar material) and some inks or paints.
Come up with some new characters (symbols) or words that you could create a chop for.
Find out some more information about the invention of the Chinese characters.
Head over to our website to watch the accompanying videos and test your knowledge with our interactive quiz.
https://www.trueeducationpartnerships.com/lesson-plan-world-chinese-language-day