Master Chu BangFu, also called the "father of the Chinese computer" or the modern Cang Jie, or Henry. |
 |
A complete description of Chu Bangfu activities click HERE (English), (French, here) for a very good article in Sino magazine by (Teng Sue-feng/photos by Jimmy Lin/ translation by Robert Taylor)
Most probably Master Chu thinks we are nuts to call him "Master". But how do you call someone who is able to explain to you, simply and clearly, where exactly you stand in the scale of human development and spiritual realization? And who can help to reach --or approach—the goal of "full" humanity by achieving complete freedom, that genuine freedom which will set you aloof from your over-demanding " selfhood " and open the door to a little more wisdom? His opinion is simple and in line with the traditional thinking: the problems of humanity rest on the erroneous importance that we give to our ego. Understanding this common mistake is key to our liberation. Becoming conscious of it requires attention, self examination, and much more. It's the most difficult task on Earth but it's our destiny.
For us, that is Master Chu; we also call him "CBF" (for Chu Bangfu) or, Baba Chu --like in India, or just Henry.
And we don’t mind that, to guide whoever ask him his opinion, he digs in the wells of wisdom distilled through the last 5000 years by a few sages like Huei Neng, LaoTzeu and Chuangze, and even Confucius -when need comes to find solutions to the disarray of the individual, or of modern society.
And the fact that he is, in addition, a kind of visionary on computer matters, would be very secondary if it wasn't for this additional fact: his mind complete focus on defending Chinese Culture from the potential devastating effects of digitalization for graphic written language. Indeed, if Chinese characters, where Chinese culture is embedded, were rendered obsolete by computers …. what vessel will carry the meaning, fully, of the discourse of wisdom the saviors we just mentioned, and the others, are ready to share with us?
Chinese characters were labeled "computer incompatible" before 1980, but CBF turned the tide by inventing the Chang-Jie System which offers a complete methodology for the Chinese characters to take advantage of all the important functions a computer can provide to any language. However, the dangers are not over! The battle goes on.
As can be seen in the introductory page regarding Chu's main work, The Nine Discourses, his interest for the highest level use of "computer intelligence" is grounded also on his interpretaion of the future course of human evolution.
The personal website of Mr. Chu, in Chinese, is: http://www.cbflabs.com
To see how Chu Bangfu started the defense of Chinese characters deemed to be computer incompatible