components. Chu assumed that it was possible to encode Chinese characters with a group of 'Chinese alphabets' which can be mapped on a common keyboard. After studying dictionary cut-outs and conducting many tests, the team released a table of 8,000 encoded characters in 1976. This result was unsatisfactory for general use but did however prove the possibility of encoding Chinese in this way. Chu then enlisted more help, including that of Shen Hung-lian () from the Department of Chinese Literature, National Taiwan University. At the same time, Chu also learned about An Wang's encoding scheme. On one hand, Wang's scheme further confirmed the feasibility of the encoding approach. On the other hand, it inspired Chu to think that his encoding scheme should not only be convenient for looking up a character, it should also take the form of the characters into account to make it possible to compose (draw) the character from a code. Chu assumed this could be achieved with the following three steps: choosing adequate rules of decomposition of characters choosing an adequate set of forms as the common components encoding the common components (with "Chinese alphabets") To achieve these steps, the team employed a principle similar to the "pictophonetic compounds" principle of Chinese. In 1977 the team released the first generation of the method that would later be named "Tsang-chieh". The team selected a set of less than 2,000 components to compose about 12,000 common characters. Each component is represented by a permutation of 1 to 3 of 26 "Chinese alphabets" (also called "radicals"). Each "alphabet" maps to a particular letter key on a standard QWERTY keyboard. In 1978, he implemented the method with computer technology, making it a Chinese input method for computers. The ROC Defense Minister Chiang Wei-kuo gave the input method the name "Tsang-chieh". Chu put Tsang-chieh method in the public domain in a bold effort to promote Chinese computing, essentially giving up his rights to any royalty. His contribution led many future Chinese systems to come bundled with a free copy of the Tsang-chieh input method, removing the greatest barrier to effective Chinese input systems. Since then, many adaptations of Chu's methods have also appeared. Over generations of upgrades, Chu's Tsang-chieh has included more and more characters. The fifth generation, released in 1985, included 60,000 characters. "Chinese computer" During the development of Tsang-chieh method, Chu found that his invention is not only an