Explore each form from the oldest known stage to today.
The character 球 originally depicted a type of beautiful jade with a round, spherical shape. In ancient China, it was composed of 玉 (jade) as the semantic component, indicating its precious material, and 求 (to seek) as the phonetic component. Over time, as jade objects were often carved into round shapes, the character's meaning expanded from specifically 'jade' to encompass anything spherical or ball-shaped. This evolution reflects how material culture influenced linguistic development, with the character maintaining its connection to preciousness while broadening to describe form. Arrived in Japan: The character 球 likely arrived in Japan during the 5th-6th centuries CE as part of the broader introduction of Chinese writing and culture through Buddhist texts and diplomatic exchanges. It was incorporated into the Japanese writing system and appears in early Japanese dictionaries like the 8th-century Man'yōshū, though its specific spherical meaning became more prominent in later periods as technical and scientific vocabulary developed.