Explore each form from the oldest known stage to today.
The character 弦 (xián) originally depicted a bowstring. In ancient oracle bone script, it showed a bow with a string attached. The character evolved through bronze script and seal script, maintaining its fundamental meaning of 'bowstring' while expanding to include concepts of strings on musical instruments, mathematical chords, and lines connecting points. The modern form combines the 'bow' radical (弓) with the phonetic component 玄 (mysterious), though the original pictographic nature has been largely lost in standardization. Arrived in Japan: The character 弦 likely arrived in Japan during the 5th-6th centuries CE along with the broader introduction of Chinese writing system (kanji) through Buddhist texts and cultural exchange with China and Korea, becoming part of the Japanese writing system during the Asuka and Nara periods.