Kanji of the day

金 - Gold

Kun: かね、かな-、-がね On: キン、 コン、 ゴン (Pinyin: jīn | jin1 )

Got caught up in a lot of work and moving so this is very late, but here it is - the Kanji of the year, 2024!

Pictophonetic: 今 represents the sound (pinyin jīn | jin1), 士 (pictograph of an axe) represents the meaning

As far as kanji go, this one is fairly modern! It only started appearing around the Shang dynasty, past the age of oracle bone script. At first it was represented by two dots, with the components 士 and 今 (previously looked more like 亼, see 今 for example) added in later to clarify its meaning.

Originally it meant copper, later extended to encompass metal in general, before eventually coming to represent gold specifically.

(the two-dot predecessor of 金 from the late Shang dynasty ~1100 BC)

(金 as it appeared in Bronze script during the late Western Zhou dynasty, ~800-700 BC - the two lines/dots would later be added to the 士 during standardization)

But then it has the little 𠂊-hat for some reason and my dictionary doesn’t have any further explanation of the purpose of this radical. The kanji for fish 魚 and color 色 also have 𠂊-hats.

I’m very curious about 𠂊 so any kanji that uses it would be interesting to know more about!

Hi, thank you for your question! It's a very interesting one with no one clear answer, so sorry if this gets a bit long.

This 𠂊 / ⺈ on top of some kanji is categorized as a component form of the 刀 knife radical, though this seems to be more for categorization purposes than anything else - more often than not, the ⺈ is an iconic tag-along! Often, as kanji went through simplification / standardization processes over time, some details were cut / lost or kanji became harder to parse. This ⺈ is often used to bridge the gap between the old and the new kanji.

Two slightly different examples that I feel show this very well:

魚 - Fish

These are two examples of 魚 from ~1100 BC, late Shang dynasty - clear pictographs with an often hooked head. As this kanji was being standardized, the ⺈ became the head of the fish, 田 for the scaly body, and 火 was used to make the fin shape - later standardized even further into its 灬 component form.

急 - Hurry, emergency, sudden

A pictophonetic kanji where 心 represents the meaning and 及 represented the sound... But where's the 及? Well..

On the left here is 及 as it appeared in the Shuowen Jiezi, ~100 AD, as well as 急 on the right. 及 got simplified with use, written faster for convencience with unneccessary details dropped, and 急 was not used as much - so 及 changed and left 急 in the dust, and when the next standardization wave came, instead of drastically changing how 急 is written, it became written with ⺈ and 彐 to keep it looking like itself.

There are so many examples like these and I can't cover all of them here, but here are some more quickfire examples: forms the head of a pictographic turtle in 亀 (turtle, tortoise), the point of a horn with a thicker base 角 (horn, later also took on the meaning of angle and/or corner), in both 色 (color) and 争 (contend, dispute, argue) it's a simplified version of 爫/爪 (hand or claw pointing downwards) that got standardized...

喜 - Rejoice, take pleasure in

Kun: よろこ.ぶ、よろこ.ばす

On: キ

(Pinyin: xǐ | xi3 )

Ideographic: Depicts someone making merry with a drum 壴 and their mouth 口; drumming and making noise with their mouth; drumming and singing; partying

As far as I'm aware, 壴 is not used for drum in modern Japanese. Instead 鼓 is used, which you might notice uses the older 壴 as a component.

(喜 as it appeared in the Shuowen Jiezi, ~100 AD, with a slightly clearer drum + decoration on top of it)

(Example of a Chinese brass drum with decoration on top, supposedly from the Zhou dynasty, to further illustrate how 壴 is meant to picture a decorated drum)

Strokes: 12

願 - Petition, request, vow, wish, hope

Kun: ねが.う、-ねがい On: ガン (Pinyin: yuàn | yuan4 )

Pictophonetic: 原 represents the sound (pinyin yè | ye4, xié | xie2), 頁 (head) represents the meaning

The 頁 radical is most often referred to as the "leaf radical" (or in japanese it's referred to as 大貝 / おおがい "big shell" radical, assumedly due to its similarity to the 貝 shellfish radical) and means "page" or "leaf", but it originally meant "head"! Due to identical pronounciations, 頁 was adopted as an easier variant writing of 葉 (leaf), and this meaning has now completely eclipsed the original one. 首 (head) would be left behind to fill the hole. (Notice the similarities between 首 and 頁 )

However, this change happened too recent and too fast for other kanji to catch up! So when you see the 頁 radical as a meaning component in a kanji, it most likely means head. Either it refers to the head directly (as in 頭 Head, 顔 Face, 顎 Jaw, and 頬 Cheek), or refers to whatever goes on inside of it (頑 Stubborn, 順 Obey, and - in this case - 願 Wish, desire)

驚 - Wonder, be surprised, frightened, amazed

Kun: おどろ.く、おどろ.かす On: キョウ (Pinyin: jīng | jing1 )

Pictophonetic: 敬 represents the sound (pinyin jìng | jing4),  馬 (horse) represents the meaning

Also Ideographic: Awe 敬 (awe, respect), but in a spooked way 馬 (horse)

This kanji originally only meant to frighten/to startle - horses are notoriously skittish and easily startled, hence the choice of 馬 as the meaning component.

計 - Plot, plan, scheme, measure, count

Kun: はか.る、 はか.らう On: ケイ (Pinyin: jì | ji4 )

Ideographic: speaking 言 (speech) numbers 十 (ten) out loud. Counting; calculating.

嬉 - Glad, pleased, rejoice

Kun: うれ.しい、 たの.しむ On: キ (Pinyin: xī | xi1 )

Pictophonetic: 喜 represents the sound (pinyin xǐ | xi3), 女 (woman) represents the meaning

Can also be read as an ideograph, as 喜 means "to rejoice/take pleasure in".

会 - Meeting, meet, party, association, interview, join

Kun: あ.う、あ.わせる、あつ.まる On: カイ、エ (Pinyin: huì | hui4, kuài | kuai4 )

Pictographic: Believed to have depicted a lidded container with something in it, representing putting something together.

(会 as it appeared in Oracle bone script ~1250-1000 BC.)

(会 as it appeared in Bronze script during the late Western Zhou dynasty, ~800-700 BC.)

Originally this kanji was written as 會, but it eventually got simplified into 会.

死 - Death, die

Kun: し.ぬ、し.に- On: シ (Pinyin: sǐ | si3 )

Pictographic: A carcass 歹 with a person 人 kneeling next to it

(死 as it appeared in bronze script during the Early Western Zhou dynasty, ~1000BC)

代 - Substitute, change, convert, replace, period, age, counter for decades of ages, eras, etc., generation, charge, rate, fee

Kun: か.わる、かわ.る、かわ.り、か.わり、-がわ.り、-が.わり、か.える、よ、しろ On: ダイ、タイ (Pinyin: dài | dai4 )

Pictophonetic: 弋 represented the sound (pinyin yì | yi4), 亻/人 (person) represents the meaning

(The phonetic compound is barely noticable anymore due to historical phonetic changes in Chinese.)

Originally this kanji only meant "to substitute", but it was further abstracted to refer to ages and generations (as in one generation "replacing" another) and is now commonly used as an indefinite generational counter (a person in their 30's = 30代, a person born in the 1960s = 60年代 )

女 - Woman, female

Kun: おんな、め On: ジョ、ニョ、ニョウ (Pinyin: nǚ | nu:3, rǔ | ru3)

Pictographic: a woman sitting or squatting.

(女 as it appeared in Oracle bone script ~1250-1000 BC. the box shape is meant to represent breasts. This kanji eventually branched off into two directions, one simplified a single breast to represent women 女, the other taking the whole chest and adding nipples to represent mothers 母)

性 - Sex, gender, nature

Kun: さが On: セイ、ショウ (Pinyin: xìng | xing4 )

Pictophonetic: 生 indicates the sound (pinyin shēng | sheng1), 忄/心 (heart) indicates the meaning

税 - Tax, duty

Kun: N/A On: ゼイ (Pinyin: shuì | shui4 )

The Kanji of the Year, 2023!

Pictophonetic: 兑/兌 indicates the sound (pinyin duì | dui4), 禾 (grain) indicates the meaning

Also ideographic: Paying an offering 兌 (exchange) of grain 禾

楽 - Music, comfort, ease

Kun: たの.しい、たの.しむ、この.む On: ガク、ラク、ゴウ (Pinyin: lè | le4, yuè | yue4 )

Ideographic: shows a wooden 木 two-stringed 幺 instrument. the 白 was added in later, possibly to represent a thumb or pick, or as a phonetic component.

This kanji has been simplified in Japanese so you have to squint a little to see the thread 幺 component. For reference, here's the un-simplified version that sometimes pops up in names:

樂

度 - Degrees, occurrence, time, counter for occurrences, consider, attitude

Kun: たび、-た.い On: ド、ト、タク (Pinyin: dù | du4, duó | duo2 )

Pictographic: Someone using their hand 又 to measure a rock 石

Also Pictophonetic: 石 indicated the sound, 又 (hand) indicates the meaning

(度 as it appeared in Oracle bone script ~1250-1000 BC, stone with a hand next to it)

As kanji were being standardized and compiled, the Shuowen Jiezi seems to have interpreted this kanji as a pictophonetic kanji consisting of 又 as a meaning compound and 庶 as a phonetic compound. This could have been a mistaken interpretation due to similarities in bronze script (the top part of 石 looked like 广 without the small stroke on the top, and the 口 component didn't touch the side), or could have been a deliberate reinterpretation to retain the shape language in standardized form while also updating the possibly already outdated phonetic compound.

(石 as it appeared mid Western Zhou period ~900 BC)

(度 from the Warring States period, 476-221 BC, made with the version of 石 shown above)

(度 as it appeared in the Shuowen Jiezi ~100AD, with 广 and 廿 instead of 石)

難 - Difficult, impossible, trouble, accident, defect

Kun: かた.い、-がた.い、むずか.しい、むづか.しい、むつか.しい、-にく.い On: ナン (Pinyin: nán | nan2, nàn | nan4 )

Pictophonetic: 𦰩 indicates the sound (pinyin jiān | jian1), and 隹 (bird) indicates the meaning

Originally meant "type of bird". Due to similar pronounciations, the kanji was borrowed for the current meaning and eventually outcompeted the original meaning.