Explore each form from the oldest known stage to today.
The character 率 has an ancient origin depicting a 'net for catching birds or animals' in oracle bone script. It evolved to represent concepts of 'leading', 'commanding', or 'rate/ratio'. The original pictograph showed a net with ropes, symbolizing both the act of gathering and the idea of proportion or calculation. Over time, it came to mean 'to lead' (as in 率领) and 'rate' (as in 比率), reflecting its dual meanings of gathering under command and mathematical proportion. Arrived in Japan: The character 率 was likely introduced to Japan during the 5th-6th centuries CE along with other Chinese characters through the Korean peninsula, as part of the broader cultural exchange that brought Chinese writing, Buddhism, and administrative systems to Japan. It appears in early Japanese texts like the Manyoshu (8th century) and was incorporated into the Japanese writing system as a kanji character.