The Kanji script is today related more so with the country of Japan rather than China although the script was initially developed in China. The modern Japanese logographic writing system was derived by the help of Chinese characters which they adopted into their system. The term kanji translates as Han characters which are Chinese in origin.
How come the Kanji script today belongs to Japan if it had its origin in China? The entire thing was the result of the trade followed by the two countries where Japan would import Chinese articles with Hans script labeled on them.
An example of such an article includes the gold seal that was handed over by the then emperor of the Han dynasty to the Japanese. How and when the Japanese began to gain command over the application of the Chinese characters remains a mystery.
The most probable story is that the first people to make use of the Chinese Kanji script symbols in Japan were actually Chinese immigrants. Otherwise the Japanese had no real means of understanding or comprehending and even learning the Chinese script.
With the passage of time the ties between the two countries became firmer. There was a constant need of written record that was to be transferred between both the countries. Hence a formal body of people known as the fuhito was set up which was trained to handle the documents written in the Chinese script. This paved the way for the acceptance of the Chinese Kanji script in Japan.
At the time when the Chinese Kanji script was introduced in Japan, the country lacked any writing system of its own. Starting out with the Chinese system the country gradually gave shape to its own writing system which involved making use of Chinese text with some restructuring according to Japanese grammar.
Yet another advancement made was that the Japanese were presently using the Chinese characters to write Japanese words. This is what gave rise to modern kana syllables. The difference was that whereas the Chinese used their characters as symbols that lacked any phonetic value, the Japanese introduced a phonetic value to the Chinese script.
Where the Kanji script is concerned it is used more extensively in China than in Japan. But one fact that should be kept in mind is the style of both the scripts are quite different. On the surface they may look similar but they are structurally quite dissimilar.
The dissimilarity between the Chinese and Japanese script also extends into the way that they are read. As mentioned above the Chinese would take the kanji characters as entire symbols whereas the Japanese would read them according to their phonetic value.
How come the Kanji script today belongs to Japan if it had its origin in China? The entire thing was the result of the trade followed by the two countries where Japan would import Chinese articles with Hans script labeled on them.
An example of such an article includes the gold seal that was handed over by the then emperor of the Han dynasty to the Japanese. How and when the Japanese began to gain command over the application of the Chinese characters remains a mystery.
The most probable story is that the first people to make use of the Chinese Kanji script symbols in Japan were actually Chinese immigrants. Otherwise the Japanese had no real means of understanding or comprehending and even learning the Chinese script.
With the passage of time the ties between the two countries became firmer. There was a constant need of written record that was to be transferred between both the countries. Hence a formal body of people known as the fuhito was set up which was trained to handle the documents written in the Chinese script. This paved the way for the acceptance of the Chinese Kanji script in Japan.
At the time when the Chinese Kanji script was introduced in Japan, the country lacked any writing system of its own. Starting out with the Chinese system the country gradually gave shape to its own writing system which involved making use of Chinese text with some restructuring according to Japanese grammar.
Yet another advancement made was that the Japanese were presently using the Chinese characters to write Japanese words. This is what gave rise to modern kana syllables. The difference was that whereas the Chinese used their characters as symbols that lacked any phonetic value, the Japanese introduced a phonetic value to the Chinese script.
Where the Kanji script is concerned it is used more extensively in China than in Japan. But one fact that should be kept in mind is the style of both the scripts are quite different. On the surface they may look similar but they are structurally quite dissimilar.
The dissimilarity between the Chinese and Japanese script also extends into the way that they are read. As mentioned above the Chinese would take the kanji characters as entire symbols whereas the Japanese would read them according to their phonetic value.
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Chinese kanji writing symbols have been used in China for thousands of years. If you want to know more about Chinese tattoo symbols follow the links contained herein.
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