啓

Originally a compound ideograph formed from:

戶 (door, household) — picturing a hinged door;

又 (hand) — depicting the act of pushing or pulling.

In oracle bone inscriptions, the graph shows a hand opening a door, carrying the sense of “to open.”

In later bronze inscriptions (金文 jinwen), a 口 (mouth) element was added beneath, and by the small seal script (小篆) stage, 又 (“hand”) was replaced with 攵 (“to strike, to act”), giving the modern form. This transformation also introduced the figurative meaning “to enlighten, to instruct.”

Semantic range:

- to open (열다);

- to initiate, begin (시작하다);

- to enlighten, awaken, instruct (일깨우다, 깨우치다).

계몽 (啓蒙) — enlightenment

계시 (啓示) — divine revelation

계문 (啓文) — petition, memorial to the throne

계업 (啓業) — to start a business

In East Asian tradition, 啓 frequently carries the sense of awakening or enlightenment, especially in Confucian and Buddhist contexts. It can mean not only “opening a door” physically, but also “opening the mind” to understanding.

In formal documents (such as royal petitions in Korea and China), 啓 was the respectful verb used when addressing the ruler, reinforcing its association with deference and respectful communication.

Notably, 啟 is considered the original form, with the Korean and Japanese shape written as ⿱⿰戶攵口 or ⿱⿰戸攵口, while in Taiwan and Hong Kong, the form ⿰启攵 is standard. Unicode assigns:

啓 (U+5553) — Korean/Japanese usage;

啟 (U+555F) — Traditional usage (Taiwan/Hong Kong).