The contemporary Japanese script was derived from Chinese characters which since then have evolved into a logographic writing style. The kanji script today as we understand stands for Japanese writing style which actually has been adopted from Chinese symbols. If you translate the kanji script you will find Hans character from which it was developed.
It is important to understand how the kanji script originally developed in China finally came to be regarded as Japanese script. The articles which were imported by Japan from China in ancient times had the Hans characters on them from which kanji were developed.
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.
It could be quite likely that the Chinese themselves had started using the Chinese Kanji script in Japan when some of them migrated to China. There was no way that Japanese could have had an opportunity to comprehend and then learn the language by themselves.
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. 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.
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 things 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.
Where the Kanji script is concerned it is used more extensively in China than in Japan. But one thing that should be kept in mind is the style of both the scripts are quite different. On the surface they may look alike 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 treat the kanji characters as entire symbols whereas the Japanese would read them according to their phonetic value.
It is important to understand how the kanji script originally developed in China finally came to be regarded as Japanese script. The articles which were imported by Japan from China in ancient times had the Hans characters on them from which kanji were developed.
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.
It could be quite likely that the Chinese themselves had started using the Chinese Kanji script in Japan when some of them migrated to China. There was no way that Japanese could have had an opportunity to comprehend and then learn the language by themselves.
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. 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.
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 things 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.
Where the Kanji script is concerned it is used more extensively in China than in Japan. But one thing that should be kept in mind is the style of both the scripts are quite different. On the surface they may look alike 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 treat the kanji characters as entire symbols whereas the Japanese would read them according to their phonetic value.
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Chinese dragon signs are considered to be auspicious and fortunate in Chinese culture. To learn more about Chinese kanji symbols click on the hyperlinks.
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