Sancai Tuhui (Vol. 24)

Cang Jie was born with four eyes. During the time of the Yellow Emperor Xuanyuan, he was appointed as the Left and Right Historian to record words and actions. Cang Jie acted as the chief official in this capacity. He began to create characters based on the tracks of birds. Heaven rained millet, and ghosts wept at night. People of the world subsequently said that the formation of written characters originated from Jie. However, according to records, there were already written records shuqi tally or inscribed documents during the time of Fuxi; therefore, he is the ancestor of all writing for ten thousand generations. It is likely that Jie simply increased and refined the existing symbols. Furthermore, according to the Huainanzi Masters of Huainan and the Huanglan Imperial Mirror, the surname of the Cang Emperor, the historian Huang Shi, was Hougang, and his personal name was Jie. He ruled for one hundred and ten years and made his capital at Yangwu. He passed away on a bingyin day the third day of the sixty-day cycle and was buried on a xinwei day the eighth day of the sixty-day cycle at the Lixiang Pavilion in Ya.