The Journey of the Glyph: Where Kanji Came From

Did you know that Kanji (漢字) literally translates to "Han characters" (China + character)? While they are central to Japanese life today, these characters began their journey thousands of years ago across the sea. To truly master Kanji, it helps to see them not just as static lines, but as living pictures that evolved over four major historical stages.

1. Oracle Bone Script (Kotsubun · 甲骨文)

The story begins with magic and mystery. Dating back to the late 2nd millennium BC (the Shang Dynasty), this is the oldest known form of Chinese writing.

• The Medium: Characters were etched into the "oracle bones" of oxen or the shells of turtles.

• The Purpose: These weren't for grocery lists! They were used for divination. Kings would ask the gods about war, rituals, harvests, or royal births. The bones were heated until they cracked, and the resulting patterns were interpreted and recorded.

2. Bronze Inscriptions (Kinbun · 金文)

As craftsmanship advanced, so did the writing. During the late Shang and Western Zhou dynasties, writing moved from bone to metal.

• The Medium: Scripts were cast into ritual bronze vessels, such as massive bells and three-legged cauldrons (tripods).

• The Method: Instead of being scratched quickly into bone, these were often pressed into clay molds using a stylus before the bronze was poured. This allowed for slightly more rounded and complex shapes than the jagged oracle bone etchings.

3. Small Seal Script (Tensho · 篆書)

This stage represents the first great "standardization" of the Chinese language. Born in the State of Qin (Eastern Zhou Dynasty), it eventually became the official script for all of China.

• The Problem: Before this, different regions had their own messy versions of characters, which made taxes, trade, and laws a nightmare to manage.

• The Solution: The Seal Script was sleek, symmetrical, and uniform. While we don't use it for daily writing anymore, you can still see this style today in Japan on official name seals (Hanko)!

4. Liushutong: The Ancient Compendium (六書通)

Rather than a specific time period, Liushutong refers to the scholarly study and "compendium" of ancient characters.

• The Focus: It categorizes characters based on the Liushu (Six Principles)—a system that explains how characters were formed (e.g., pictographs that look like objects vs. ideographs that represent abstract ideas).

• The Legacy: By studying these collections, we can trace exactly how a picture of a "mountain" (山) or a "tree" (木) transformed from a rough sketch on a bone into the balanced character you write in your notebook today.