Cang Jie

Also known as Cang Jie (variant writing) · Sage Cang

Cang Jie is a figure of the legendary age, regarded since pre-Qin times as the creator of writing. The Xunzi says many loved writing but Cang Jie alone was handed down, because he was single-minded. Xu Shen's preface to the Shuowen jiezi (Eastern Han) says that the Yellow Emperor's historian Cang Jie saw the tracks of birds and beasts, realised that such marks could be told apart, and first made written signs. The Huainanzi says that when Cang Jie made writing, grain fell from the sky and ghosts wailed at night. Later ages honoured him as the Sage Cang; there is a Cang Jie temple at Baishui in Shaanxi, and rites for him are held at the Grain Rain solar term. Nothing about his life can be verified.