Explore each form from the oldest known stage to today.
The character 忘 (wàng) means 'to forget.' It is composed of two parts: 亡 (wáng), meaning 'to perish' or 'to lose,' and 心 (xīn), meaning 'heart' or 'mind.' This structure poetically illustrates the concept of forgetting as something 'perishing from the heart/mind.' In ancient Liushutong, the form recorded in L09159 shows a clear evolution from earlier seal script versions, where the components were more pictographic, toward the standardized clerical and regular script used today. The character embodies the idea that what is forgotten is lost to one's consciousness. Arrived in Japan: The character 忘, along with a large body of Chinese characters, was introduced to Japan during the Yamato period, primarily through the Korean peninsula and direct cultural exchanges with China. The most significant wave of importation is generally attributed to the 5th to 6th centuries CE, when Chinese writing and Buddhism were systematically adopted by the Japanese court.