Kanji

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to navigationJump to search
This article is about the characters used in Japanese writing. For other uses, see Kanji
(disambiguation).
Kanji (漢字; [kã̠ɴʑi] listen) are the adopted logographic Chinese characters that are used in
the Japanese writing system. They are used alongside the Japanese syllabic
[1]

scripts hiragana and katakana. The Japanese term kanji for the Chinese characters literally
means "Han characters". It is written with the same characters in the Chinese language to
[2]

refer to the character writing system, hanzi (漢字).[3]

Japanese writing

Components

Kanji[show]

Kana[show]

Typographic

symbols[show]

Uses

Syllabograms[show]

Romanization

Rōmaji[show]

 v

 t

 e
 Kanji

Type Logographic

Languages Old Japanese, Japanese

Parent systems Oracle bone script

 Seal script

o Clerical script

 Regular script

 Hanzi

 Kanji

Sister systems Hanja, Zhuyin, traditional Chinese, simplified

Chinese, Nom, Khitan script, Jurchen script

Direction Left-to-right

ISO 15924 Hani, 500

Unicode alias Han

This article contains IPA phonetic symbols.Without proper rendering support,

you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbolsinstead
of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Chinese characters

Scripts

 Precursors

 Oracle-bone

 Bronze


o Seal (bird-worm
 o large

o small)

 Clerical

 Regular

 Semi-cursive

 Cursive

 Flat brush

 Simplified characters

Type styles

 Imitation Song

 Ming

 Sans-serif

Properties

 Strokes (order)

 Radicals

 Classification

Variants

Character-form standards


o Kangxi Dictionary

o Xin Zixing
 General Standard Chinese Characters (PRC)
 Graphemes of Commonly-used Chinese Characters (Hong
Kong)

 Standard Typefaces for Chinese Characters (ROC Taiwan)

Grapheme-usage standards

 Graphemic variants

 General Standard Characters (PRC)

 Jōyō kanji (Japan)

Other standards

 Standardized Forms of Words with Variant Forms (PRC)

Previous standards

 Commonly-used Characters (PRC)

  Frequently-used Characters (PRC)

 Tōyō kanji (Japan)

Reforms

Chinese

 Traditional characters
 Simplified characters
o (first round
o second round)

 Debate

Japanese

 Old (Kyūjitai)

 New (Shinjitai)

 Ryakuji

Sino-Japanese

 Differences between Shinjitai and Simplified characters

Korean

 Yakja

Singaporean

 Table of Simplified Characters

Homographs

 Literary and colloquial readings

Use in particular scripts

 Written Chinese

 Zetian characters

 Slavonic transcription

 Nü Shu

 Kanji (Kokuji)

 Kana (Man'yōgana)

 Idu

 Hanja (Gukja)

 Nom

 Sawndip
  v

 t

 e

For a list of words

relating to kanji, see

the Japanese-coined

CJKV
characterscategory of
words in Wiktionary,
the free dictionary.

Contents

 1History
 2Orthographic reform and lists of kanji
o 2.1Kyōiku kanji
o 2.2Jōyō kanji
o 2.3Jinmeiyō kanji
o 2.4Hyōgai kanji
o 2.5Japanese Industrial Standards for kanji
 2.5.1Gaiji
 3Total number of kanji
 4Readings
o 4.1On'yomi (Sino-Japanese reading)
o 4.2Kun'yomi (native reading)
o 4.3Mixed readings
o 4.4Special readings
o 4.5Single character gairaigo
o 4.6Other readings
o 4.7When to use which reading
o 4.8Pronunciation assistance
o 4.9Spelling words
o 4.10Dictionaries
 5Local developments and divergences from Chinese
o 5.1Kokuji
o 5.2Kokkun
 6Types of kanji by category
o 6.1Shōkei moji (象形文字)
o 6.2Shiji moji (指事文字)
o 6.3Kaii moji (会意文字)
o 6.4Keisei moji (形声文字)
o 6.5Tenchū moji (転注文字)
o 6.6Kasha moji (仮借文字)
 7Related symbols
 8Collation
 9Kanji education
 10See also
 11Notes
 12References
 13External links
o 13.1Glyph conversion

History[edit]

Nihon Shoki (720 AD), considered by historians and archaeologists as the most complete extant historical record of ancient Japan,

was written entirely in kanji.

Chinese characters first came to Japan on official seals, letters, swords, coins, mirrors, and
other decorative items imported from China. The earliest known instance of such an import
was the King of Na gold sealgiven by Emperor Guangwu of Han to a Yamato emissary in 57
AD. Chinese coins from the first century AD have been found in Yayoi period archaeological
[4]

sites. However, the Japanese of that era probably had no comprehension of the script, and
[5]

would remain illiterate until the fifth century AD. According to the Nihon Shoki and Kojiki, a
[5]

semi-legendary scholar called Wani (王仁) was dispatched to Japan by the Kingdom of
Baekje during the reign of Emperor Ōjin in the early fifth century, bringing with him
knowledge of Confucianism and Chinese characters. [6]

The earliest Japanese documents were probably written by bilingual Chinese or Korean
officials employed at the Yamato court. For example, the diplomatic correspondence
[5]

from King Bu of Wa to Emperor Shun of Liu Song in 478 has been praised for its skillful use
of allusion. Later, groups of people called fuhito were organized under the monarch to read
and write Classical Chinese. During the reign of Empress Suiko (593–628), the Yamato court
began sending full-scale diplomatic missions to China, which resulted in a large increase in
Chinese literacy at the Japanese court. [6]

In ancient times paper was so rare that people stenciled kanji onto thin, rectangular strips of
wood. These wooden boards were used for communication between government offices,
tags for goods transported between various countries, and the practice of writing. The oldest
written kanji in Japan discovered so far was written in ink on wood as a wooden strip dated
to the 7th century. It is a record of trading for cloth and salt. [7][No longer mentioned in source]

The Japanese language had no written form at the time Chinese characters were introduced,
and texts were written and read only in Chinese. Later, during the Heian period (794–1185),
however, a system known as kanbun emerged, which involved using Chinese text
with diacritical marks to allow Japanese speakers to restructure and read Chinese sentences,
by changing word order and adding particles and verb endings, in accordance with the rules
of Japanese grammar.
Chinese characters also came to be used to write Japanese words, resulting in the modern
kana syllabaries. Around 650 AD, a writing system called man'yōgana (used in the ancient
poetry anthology Man'yōshū) evolved that used a number of Chinese characters for their
sound, rather than for their meaning. Man'yōgana written in cursive style evolved
into hiragana, or onna-de, that is, "ladies' hand," a writing system that was accessible to
[8]

women (who were denied higher education). Major works of Heian-era literature by women
were written in hiragana. Katakana emerged via a parallel path: monastery students
simplified man'yōgana to a single constituent element. Thus the two other writing systems,
hiragana and katakana, referred to collectively as kana, are descended from kanji. In
comparison to kana (仮名,