Explore each form from the oldest known stage to today.
The character 食 depicts a vessel with a lid containing food, originally representing 'to eat' or 'food.' In its earliest oracle bone script forms, it showed a kneeling figure before a container of food. Over centuries, the character evolved through bronze script and seal script, gradually simplifying into its modern form. The Liushutong character L28366 represents an intermediate form from the Han dynasty that closely resembles the modern 食, maintaining the lid component and the vessel base while streamlining the strokes. Arrived in Japan: The character 食 was introduced to Japan along with other Chinese characters, likely between the 5th and 6th centuries CE during the period when Chinese writing and Buddhism were systematically transmitted to Japan through Korean scribes and Chinese scholars.