Explore each form from the oldest known stage to today.
The character 根 (root) evolved from ancient pictographs representing the fundamental part of a plant or tree. In Liushutong, the form shows the radical 木 (tree/wood) combined with 艮, which originally depicted a person looking backward, conveying the meaning of 'foundation' or 'origin.' Over centuries, 根 came to represent not just physical roots but also conceptual foundations - the root of a problem, the basis of thought, or one's origins. This evolution from concrete plant imagery to abstract philosophical concepts reflects how Chinese characters developed layered meanings while maintaining their pictorial origins. Arrived in Japan: The character 根 likely arrived in Japan during the 5th-6th centuries CE, when the Japanese writing system was developing and大量 borrowing Chinese characters (kanji) through cultural exchange with China and the Korean peninsula. It would have been part of the early wave of kanji importation that formed the foundation of written Japanese.