Development Of Kanji Script
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 transforms as Han characters which are Chinese in origin.
So what is the real story behind Chinese kanji symbols and how come they are attributed to Japan today? Well, it all started out when Chinese articles started coming into Japan as imports with Han character inscriptions 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 achieve command over the application of the Chinese characters remains a mystery.
What probably may have happened was that the Chinese immigrants in Japan must have been the first people to be using the Kanji script. It would have been completely impossible for the Japanese themselves to understand it and learn the script on their own.
With the passage of time the bonding between the two countries became firmer. There was a constant need of written documentation that was to be transferred between both the countries. therefore 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.
When Chinese Kanji script came to Japan there was nothing like formal writing system existing in the country. Initially the Japanese started writing with the Chinese script itself but gradually they started developing a script of their own with the aid of the Kanji script which would be compatible with Japanese grammar.
What the Japanese did was that they started to write Japanese words with Chinese characters. This was an advancement made in Japanese writing method and was named as Kana syllables. The Japanese additionally developed the script and introduced phonetics to the Chinese symbols they were using whereas in China the symbols did not have any kind of phonetic.
The use of Kanji symbols is still far greater in China as compared to in Japan. Contrary to popular belief the kanji script used in both the countries are not exactly the same. Although they may seem quite similar the Chinese kanji symbols are quite different with regards to their structure.
The reading method of the Kanji script in both China and Japan are also different. In China this script is treated entirely as symbols and as such has no phonetic value where as in Japan it is read according to their phonetics as we have already discussed.
So what is the real story behind Chinese kanji symbols and how come they are attributed to Japan today? Well, it all started out when Chinese articles started coming into Japan as imports with Han character inscriptions 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 achieve command over the application of the Chinese characters remains a mystery.
What probably may have happened was that the Chinese immigrants in Japan must have been the first people to be using the Kanji script. It would have been completely impossible for the Japanese themselves to understand it and learn the script on their own.
With the passage of time the bonding between the two countries became firmer. There was a constant need of written documentation that was to be transferred between both the countries. therefore 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.
When Chinese Kanji script came to Japan there was nothing like formal writing system existing in the country. Initially the Japanese started writing with the Chinese script itself but gradually they started developing a script of their own with the aid of the Kanji script which would be compatible with Japanese grammar.
What the Japanese did was that they started to write Japanese words with Chinese characters. This was an advancement made in Japanese writing method and was named as Kana syllables. The Japanese additionally developed the script and introduced phonetics to the Chinese symbols they were using whereas in China the symbols did not have any kind of phonetic.
The use of Kanji symbols is still far greater in China as compared to in Japan. Contrary to popular belief the kanji script used in both the countries are not exactly the same. Although they may seem quite similar the Chinese kanji symbols are quite different with regards to their structure.
The reading method of the Kanji script in both China and Japan are also different. In China this script is treated entirely as symbols and as such has no phonetic value where as in Japan it is read according to their phonetics as we have already discussed.
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Chinese dragon symbols are are thought to bring good luck in Chinese culture. To read more on Chinese kanji characters click on the hyperlinks.