Explore each form from the oldest known stage to today.
The character 如 (rú) evolved from ancient pictographs showing a woman (女) beside a mouth (口), originally meaning 'to follow' or 'obey.' In oracle bone script, it depicted a woman kneeling in submission. By the bronze script era, the composition stabilized into the modern radical arrangement. The meaning expanded to include 'like,' 'as if,' and 'according to,' reflecting how following instructions leads to similarity. In Confucian texts, it appears in terms like 如何 (rúhé - 'how about') and 如此 (rúcǐ - 'like this'), cementing its role in comparative and conditional expressions. Arrived in Japan: The character 如 arrived in Japan around the 5th-6th centuries CE during the Yayoi period, when Chinese writing was introduced through Buddhist scriptures and Confucian classics. It was incorporated into the Japanese language as part of the kanji system, used in words like 如実 (nyojitsu - 'as it is') and 如来 (nyorai - 'Tathagata,' a Buddhist term).