Chinese characters are the crystallization of Chinese civilization, the only language and writing system inherited from the four ancient civilizations, and the most widely used writing system in the world. Ancient China, based on Chinese characters, formed a huge Han cultural circle. Japan, a developed country in East Asia, is also a country deeply influenced by Chinese characters. Japanese Kanji was introduced around the 4th century AD, and although there are Chinese characters in the cultural relics unearthed in Japan around the 3rd century AD, the Japanese people's awareness of Chinese characters at that time was not high.
There are three main uses of ancient Japanese Kanji:
Following the meaning of the original Chinese, the pronunciation is similar, such as "mountain", which can be read as "サン";
The Japanese independent evolution of the reading method, called the precept reading, the mountain can be read as "やま";
Only borrow the sound of the word, but the text is other, such as the name also Ma, can be pronounced as "やま";
In fact, the pronunciation of Chinese characters in Japanese is more complicated now, because many ancient Chinese pronunciation methods are retained, such as Wu yin, Tang yin and idiomatic sounds.
Now people (including Japanese) generally recognize that Chinese characters came from China. However, in different historical periods, Japan has developed different Chinese characters, and has also created many Japanese Chinese characters and vocabularies. Although the basis of Chinese characters was introduced from China, modern China has indeed absorbed a lot of vocabulary from the Japanese Chinese character system, and this article will give a few representative examples to talk about what words came from Japan.
The term "cadre" often used in China comes from Japan, and in Chinese the meaning is "generally referring to public officials in state organs, the army, and people's organizations, and personnel who hold certain leadership or management work." "In Japanese, there are four meanings: the central part of a thing; the core personnel such as a group or company; the title of a general in the army, a corporal officer; and a general term for a lieutenant officer or above in the Self-Defense Forces.
In the national news published in Japan in 1904, there is such a statement: "幹部公選、重要問題を衆議により決定すべしとの. (Public election of cadres, important issues should be decided by the House of Representatives) The Japanese word for cadre comes from the French translation of cadre, which means backbone. It is reported that the term was introduced to China in the early 20th century and has since been used by many celebrities.
Freedom (right) Two个词语, this is the same thing japan. Japanese writer Tsukasa Taro's modern thought at the end of the Tokugawa shogunate ("Shogunate modern thought")In the middle of the 1983s, the drawing: Modern thought will be consolidated by the two-word concept of freedom and rights. It is Yukichi Fukuzawa to translate these two words from English and to have added it as new Japanese. (Free Harmony Toshi-Yō Two 个词汇 is a conceptual collection of modern thought.) Two Two 词语从 襮 襮 Join The Middle Of China. ）
In fact, the word freedom also existed in ancient China, and in the words and phrases of Liu Shang in the Tang Dynasty, there was a saying that "it is free to take a step and move a thing". But freedom here is limited to what one claims, not to the level of civil rights. In Japan's modern thinking, the germ of civil liberties has emerged, which has risen to the height of a modern country. So in the modern sense, the meaning of the word freedom is given by Japanese educators.
According to the research of Xiong Yuezhi, who was the vice president of the Chinese Historical Society, the word freedom first appeared in the "Bulletin of the Nations" in China in 1900, and was already used in Japan before that. So from the perspective of the timeline, it is also consistent.
In the past two days, the word "police" has appeared more frequently, and this word also comes from Japan. In ancient China, there were many police organizations similar to today's, such as the patrol camp of the Qing Dynasty, the Five Cities Soldier Sima of the Ming Dynasty, and the Patrol Department of the Song Dynasty. Such organizations, known differently in each dynasty, function as the police now.
The word police comes from the word "police", a word born in France in the 18th century, with roots in ancient Greek. During the Meiji period in Japan, the police system was similar to the comprehensive study of the Western system. The meaning of police is vigilance and warning, and the meaning of inspection is inspection, and japan has coined the word "police". In the "A Brief History of the Development of the Chinese Police", there is a detailed introduction. In 1884, the Qing Dynasty sent ministers to investigate abroad, and one of the ministers was named Fu Yunlong, and in his diary of the expedition, the term Japanese police was mentioned. However, it was not until 1905 that the Qing Dynasty began to formally set up a patrol police department and began to establish a modern police school, and the initial police system was also established in the turmoil of the times, but the term "police" was not officially used until the end of the Qing Dynasty. Later, during the Republic of China period, the patrol police were changed to police, and "police departments" were set up in various places.
In fact, if you look carefully, you can find a lot of words from Japan in modern Chinese. The above words are the words we often say on our lips, but few people think that they come from Japan. In addition to the above words, there are many Chinese words from Japan, such as: society, inflation, nervousness, economics, recession, ultimatum, photo, popularity, first-class stick, progress, philosophy, science, capitalism, imperialism, shopping street, kanban, belly black, hilarious, etc.
Behind these words is a reflection of Japan's socio-economic culture, and it was also introduced to China because of the cultural exchanges between the two countries. Especially in the last years of the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, China still absorbed a lot of culture from Japan.
Language is a development of things, never set in stone, and it is this development that has created the fact that Chinese characters can be passed down for thousands of years.