The Kanji script is today associated 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.
The history bears evidence to this fact from many examples such as the Han dynasty ruler had gifted a gold seal with Hans' inscription to the Japanese. What we still wonder is that how and when the Hans characters were started to be used in Japan and developed.
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 bonding 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.
Chinese Kanji script brought the idea of formal writing script in Japan which did not have one at that time. They began to use Chinese script for writing initially and slowly shaped their own writing system with matter taken from the Chinese script and then reshaping them to fit the Japanese grammar.
The Japanese adopted the Chinese symbol characters in their script and wrote the Japanese language with Chinese symbol naming it as Kana syllable. It was a definite achievement as far as Japanese script was concerned. To further the easy acceptance of their script the Japanese introduced phonetics in their script where as in China Chinese symbols had no phonetics whatsoever.
Kanji script though taken more or less as Japanese is used more frequently in China than in Japan. People also believe that the Kanji script of both the countries look almost the same. In reality the Japanese and Chinese Kanji script has lot of difference as Chinese Kanji symbols are shaped differently.
There is another difference in Chinese and Japanese Kanji script when we apply it to the reading part. As discussed the Chinese treat the Kanji characters as symbols without any phonetic suggestion but in Japanese script every syllable has phonetic value. - 33385
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.
The history bears evidence to this fact from many examples such as the Han dynasty ruler had gifted a gold seal with Hans' inscription to the Japanese. What we still wonder is that how and when the Hans characters were started to be used in Japan and developed.
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 bonding 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.
Chinese Kanji script brought the idea of formal writing script in Japan which did not have one at that time. They began to use Chinese script for writing initially and slowly shaped their own writing system with matter taken from the Chinese script and then reshaping them to fit the Japanese grammar.
The Japanese adopted the Chinese symbol characters in their script and wrote the Japanese language with Chinese symbol naming it as Kana syllable. It was a definite achievement as far as Japanese script was concerned. To further the easy acceptance of their script the Japanese introduced phonetics in their script where as in China Chinese symbols had no phonetics whatsoever.
Kanji script though taken more or less as Japanese is used more frequently in China than in Japan. People also believe that the Kanji script of both the countries look almost the same. In reality the Japanese and Chinese Kanji script has lot of difference as Chinese Kanji symbols are shaped differently.
There is another difference in Chinese and Japanese Kanji script when we apply it to the reading part. As discussed the Chinese treat the Kanji characters as symbols without any phonetic suggestion but in Japanese script every syllable has phonetic value. - 33385
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Chinese kanji characters are an ancient form of script that is highly artistic. If you want to read more on Chinese animal characters click the links.
