obedience

倭.

This was the Chinese character that represent Japan in the first in China.
This character pronounced as "wa".

人+禾+女＝倭
　
人 is the hieroglyph of the human.
禾 is the hieroglyph of ear of rice which is hung head.
女 is the hieroglyph of the woman.

禾+女＝委
　
Sense of the original of 委 is "state where follow obediently".
　
人+委＝倭　
　
"obedience" ，"modesty".
Therefore，倭 has a meaning like this.
　
"State that winding."

And further,委 has this sense.
　
"long and winding road","the far".
　
It is derived from it，倭 seems to also has this sense.


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"We decided to 日本 to the Chinese character indicating our country.
In the future，please write our country as 日本.
There is a request like that from Japan.
　
Therefore，we stop using the character of 倭.
And after this，we will write Japan as 日本."
　
Such records.
It remains in the historiography of the Tang dynasty of China.
　
Note:Establishment of this history book is after the fall of the Tang Dynasty.
And this is a free translation fairly.
Not be accurate.


・・・・・・・・・

　
Sense of the character of 倭.
Apparently, Japanese at the time seems to did not like it.
　
日本.
　
日 is the hieroglyph of the sun.
　
本－"-"＝木
　
木 is the hieroglyphic of the tree.
　
木＋"-"＝本　
This represents the root of the tree.
　
"the essence"，"the origin".
This Chinese character has senses like that.　
　
"From which the sun rises."
　
Therefore，日本 has a sense like that.　
　
Note:Pacific Ocean is present to east of Japan of course.