Explore each form from the oldest known stage to today.
Historical forms are not available yet. The current form is shown as a reference.
The character 瞬 (shùn) evolved from ancient forms depicting the eye and eyelashes, originally meaning 'to blink' or 'wink.' In Liushutong, L22199 shows an early seal script form with 目 (eye) combined with 舜 (which provides phonetic value and also means 'to sway'). Over time, the character came to represent the briefest moment - 'an instant' or 'the blink of an eye' - reflecting how quickly a blink occurs. This evolution from literal blinking to metaphorical instant demonstrates how Chinese characters often expanded from physical actions to abstract temporal concepts. Arrived in Japan: The character 瞬 likely arrived in Japan during the 5th-6th centuries CE along with the broader introduction of Chinese writing systems, possibly through Buddhist texts or Confucian classics. It became established in the Japanese writing system during the Nara period (710-794 CE) when Japan systematically adopted Chinese characters (kanji) for writing Japanese.