Explore each form from the oldest known stage to today.
The character 離 originally depicted a bird caught in a net, symbolizing separation and departure. In its earliest oracle bone script forms, it showed a bird (隹) entangled in a net-like structure. Over time, the character evolved through bronze script and seal script periods, eventually developing into its modern form with the radical 隹 (bird) combined with 离 (originally representing the net). The core meaning shifted from the literal capture of a bird to more abstract concepts of separation, distance, and leaving. In Confucian classics, it appears in phrases describing the sorrow of parting, cementing its emotional connotations in Chinese culture. Arrived in Japan: The character 離 arrived in Japan during the 5th-6th centuries CE, along with the broader introduction of Chinese writing system (kanji) through Buddhist texts and Chinese classics. It was formally incorporated into the Japanese writing system during the Nara period (710-794 CE) and appears in early Japanese literary works like the Man'yōshū poetry collection.