character (From the Han dynasty, 206 B.C.E to 25 C.E.) One
of the set of
glyphs common to Chinese (where they are
called "hanzi"), Japanese (where they are called
kanji), and
Korean (where they are called
hanja).
Han characters are generally described as "ideographic", i.e.,
picture-writing; but see the reference below.
Modern Korean, Chinese and Japanese
fonts may represent a
given Han character as somewhat different glyphs. However, in
for all of
CJK. This unification is referred to as "Han
Unification", with the resulting character repertoire
sometimes referred to as "Unihan".
[John DeFrancis, "The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy",
University of Hawaii Press, 1984].
(1998-10-18)