Explore each form from the oldest known stage to today.
The character 猛 (měng) evolved from ancient pictographs depicting a fierce dog or hound. Its composition combines the 'dog' radical (犭) with the component 孟, which originally represented a vessel for washing newborns and carried connotations of 'first' or 'great.' Over time, these elements merged to convey the meaning of 'fierce,' 'violent,' 'brave,' or 'intense'—qualities associated with a powerful hunting dog. In Liushutong, the character appears in seal script forms that show variations in the arrangement of these components, reflecting the standardization process from ancient bronze inscriptions to clerical script and finally to the modern regular script. Arrived in Japan: The character 猛 was likely introduced to Japan during the early waves of Chinese character adoption, possibly around the 5th-6th centuries CE along with other Chinese written materials and Buddhist texts. It became established in the Japanese writing system as a kanji used in words like 猛烈 (mōretsu - fierce, violent) and 猛獣 (mōjū - wild beast), appearing in early Japanese literary works from the Nara and Heian periods.