Explore each form from the oldest known stage to today.
The character 合 depicts a vessel with a lid fitting perfectly on top, representing the concept of 'joining,' 'fitting together,' or 'matching.' In its earliest oracle bone script forms, it showed two parts coming together. Over centuries, the character evolved through bronze script and seal script before standardizing into its modern form. The core meaning revolves around harmony, agreement, and union - whether of people meeting, ideas matching, or components fitting. This fundamental concept expanded to form numerous compound words like 合作 (cooperation), 合意 (agreement), and 合格 (passing standard). Arrived in Japan: The character 合 arrived in Japan during the 5th-6th centuries CE, primarily through the introduction of Chinese writing systems via Korean peninsula. It was adopted into Japanese as 'gō' or 'au' and became integrated into both the Japanese language and the developing kanji system, appearing in early Japanese texts like the Kojiki (712 CE) and Manyoshu (8th century).