Historical changes in words meaning “characters” in Chinese civilization

Abstract

Because each character roughly corresponds to one word, the written language of China is characterized as being composed of what are known as “logograms.” However, in Japanese, the symbols used to write written language daily are referred to by a two-character word, “文字 WenZi.” Sometimes they are also referred to by a one-character word, “字 Zi,” or another two-character word, “漢字 HanZi.” The following questions remain: Why is this idea represented in a manner so removed from its core concept? And why do multiple representations of this same idea exist? To answer these questions, this article analyzes history to explore how words referring to “character symbol” changed over the course of Chinese civilization.