The Cangjie input method (sometimes spelt “Changjie” or “Cang Jei”) is a system by which Chinese character

Chinese character

Chinese characters are logograms used in the writing of Chinese and Japanese , less frequently Korean , formerly Vietnamese , or other languages...

s may be entered into a computer

Computer

A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...

 by means of a standard keyboard. Invented in 1976 by Chu Bong-Foo

Chu Bong-Foo

Chu Bong-Foo is the inventor of the Cangjie method, the most widely available Chinese input method. He is said to be the father of the modern Chinese computing, as his public domain input method, created in 1976, has sped up the computerization of Chinese society.Chu spent his childhood in Taiwan,...

, the method is named after Cangjie

Cangjie

Cangjie is a very important figure in ancient China , claimed to be an official historian of the Yellow Emperor and the inventor of Chinese characters. 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...

, the man historically attributed with the invention of the first writing system of China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

; the name was suggested by Chiang Wei-kuo

Chiang Wei-kuo

Chiang Wei-kuo was an adopted son of President Chiang Kai-shek, adoptive brother of President Chiang Ching-kuo, and an important figure in the Kuomintang . His courtesy names were Jianhao and Niantang .- Early life :...

, then Defence Minister of the Republic of China

Republic of China

The Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan , is a unitary sovereign state located in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China currently governs the island of Taiwan , which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other minor...

. Although the input method was initially based upon Traditional Chinese characters, it has since been revamped such that interoperability between Cangjie and the Simplified Chinese character set was made possible.

Sometimes, for example in filename

Filename

The filename is metadata about a file; a string used to uniquely identify a file stored on the file system. Different file systems impose different restrictions on length and allowed characters on filenames.A filename includes one or more of these components:...

s, the name Cangjie is abbreviated as cj.

Unlike pinyin

Pinyin method

The pinyin method refers to a family of input methods based on the pinyin method of romanization.In the most basic form, the pinyin method allows a user to input Chinese characters by entering the pinyin of a Chinese character and then presenting the user with a list of possible characters with...

, Cangjie is based on the graphological aspect of the characters wherein each basic, graphical unit is represented by a
basic character component, of which there are 24 in all, each mapped to a particular letter key on a standard QWERTY keyboard.