(Reserved for ads for kanji-related products)
Kanji is the Japanese pronunciation of two Chinese characters, KAN and JI, traditionally written 漢 and 字. Taken together the meaning is "the characters (JI) of the Han (KAN) Chinese people." Chinese look at the two characters 漢 and 字 and pronounce them HAN and ZI. Koreans look at them and say HAN and JA. The two written characters, 漢 and 字, are the same (with stylistic variations) for all four languages, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese, but they are read aloud differently depending on the which language is spoken. This pattern--- same characters, same meanings, different pronunciations--- applies to every one of the many thousands of Chinese characters of the classical written language that form the foundation of a great part of the traditional culture of Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and other places in East Asia, as well as of the different areas of China. I use 'kanji' simply because it is the more widely known pronunciation of these two characters among English speakers. In fact, the word 'kanji' has been included in at least one English dictionary for more than twenty-four years whereas hanzi, hanja, and chu' Ha`n do not appear in English dictionaries, as far as I know. In other words, the word 'kanji' has been imported into English. My site is primarily for English readers, so that's why in 1995 I choose kanji.com rather than hanzi.com, or hanja.com. I could have chosen chinesecharacters.com, but it was too long.