Explore each form from the oldest known stage to today.
The character 作 (zuò) evolved from ancient pictographs showing a person working with tools. In oracle bone script, it depicted a person cutting or crafting with a blade. By the bronze script era, it combined the radical 人 (person) with 乍 (which originally represented a cutting tool). The character's core meaning of 'to make', 'to create', or 'to work' has remained consistent throughout its evolution, reflecting humanity's fundamental creative impulse. In the Liushutong, L27240 represents one of the transitional forms that bridges the ancient pictorial representation with the modern standardized character. Arrived in Japan: The character 作 arrived in Japan during the 5th-6th centuries CE, primarily through the introduction of Chinese writing systems via Korean peninsula. It became established in Japan's writing system during the Asuka period (538-710 CE) as part of the broader cultural transmission of Chinese characters (kanji) along with Buddhism and Confucian texts.