The Origin of Kanji?

[studyonline]

Does anyone know the origin of Kanji? Obviously, I think only Chinese people can answer that question, but I wondered if anybody knows.

I am curious to know how they developped and made such characters. The cultuer and its history is one of the oldest in the world. The language should be also one of the oldest in my opinion.

I have read a book about it, but I would like to ask you all if you have any info or knowledge on this.

Thanks.

 

[lexico]

For a good overview of the Chinese language in general, see the Scientific American article in pfd format Chinese Language; esp. the chart Historical Development of Pictographic Characters on p. 11 (p. 61 in original doc.).

Some early pictographs on pottery such as those from archeological site 4th-5th millenium bce in Hemudu 河姆渡 along the lower Yanzi River in Zhejiang province are evidence that picture representations of objects existed prior to the early writings attested in the 150,000 and some pieces of turtle shell and bone inscriptions 甲骨文 of the mid-to-late Shang dynasty, ie. ca. 1400-1100 BCE.

< photo 1. earthen basin with flower or rice (?) engavings from Hemudu 河姆渡 >

(note on the origin of Chinese pottery and rice cultivation: Whereas the earliest pottery are from southwestern Japanese Islands (Caves at Fukui and Kamikuroiwa, both from ca. 10,000 bce) the earliest Chinese ceramic vessels are from Yuchanyan 玉蟾巖 (Lixian 澧縣, Hunan province 湖南省) with also the earliest known rice cultivation dated to around 10,050 to 8,000 years BCE. If the pictograph of the plant in photo 1. is rice, then the variety must have been the domesticated kind, and should have had a long history of cultivation in the range of 2-5 thousand years prior to the discovered pot. For recent archeological excavations and studies of rice cultivation and pottery from Yuchanyan and other sites, see IV. Xianrendong & Diaotonghuan, Jiangxi, and Yuchanyan, Hunan, reflect a mid-Yangtze rice origin.)



< photo 2. earthen bowl with a boar or domesticated pig from Hemudu 河姆渡 >

Some pottery from Banpo, Dawenkou, and other pre-Shang cultures also record interesting pictographic emblems on pot shards predating the turtle shell and bone inscriptions. They had already experienced much refinement and accumulated writing conventions some of which are later codified as the six principles of word origin and usage 六書 (象形, 指事, 會意, 形聲, 轉注, 假借) appearing in 鄭衆's 周官. Nevertheless certain turtle shell and bone inscription 甲骨文 conventions were not current by the Han dynasties, such as combining two syllables as one graph 合文 or writing in mirror images without discrimination.

 

[Mycernius]

Kanji originated from the chinese writing bought to Japan. Chinese writing (Hanzi) is pictorial in nature ie: picture representing the world around them and ideas. Over the years the writing became more and more stylised to become the characters that we recognise today. The Alphabet also originated from pictograms. As you can see it has also be come stylised into what we recognise.
Someone with a bit more knowledge can probably give you better details into when it was introduced into Japan. If I remember correctly, about 7th-8th century.

 

[ryuurui]

For a good overview of the Chinese language in general, see the Scientific American article in pfd format Chinese Language; esp. the chart Historical Development of Pictographic Characters on p. 11 (p. 61 in original doc.).
Some early pictograms on pottery such as those from archeological site 4th-5th millenium bce in Hemudu 河姆渡 along the lower Yanzi River in Zhejiang province are evidcence that picture representations of objects existed prior to the ealy writings attested in the 150,000 and some pieces of turtle shell and bone inscriptions 甲骨文 of the mid-to-late Shang dynasty, ie. ca. 1400-1100 BCE

Careful with such data. The above has serious factual errors. Oracle bone script apeared earlier than 1400B.C., and it was not the oldest linguistically semi-matured script. According to new data kinbun (金文) preceded oracle bone. 玉蟾巖 pottery dates earlier than 10,000 B.C. This date is off by 6000 years... etc.

In regards to history of kanji, more here:

japanese calligraphy