旦

Pictographic / ideographic character:

日 (sun) and 一 (horizon, ground line)

Thus 旦 visually represents the sun (日) rising above the horizon (一)

This is one of the most transparent pictographs in the Chinese script.

Historical development

Oracle bone script (甲骨文): sun drawn as a circle with a dot, rising above a rectangular earth-line.

Bronze script (金文): the base is a square, not a line → reflecting the cosmological model “天圓地方” (“Heaven is round, Earth is square”).

Seal script (篆書): square became a horizontal stroke; shape simplified.

Clerical & standard scripts (隸楷): became the modern form 旦.

Korean variant:

In the Joseon dynasty, a special variant resembling 므 was used because 旦 was taboo due to being part of King Taejo Yi Seong-gye (李成桂)’s personal name 旦 (Seong-gye's original name was 李旦).

This variant appears in old documents, geographical names, and inscriptions.

In Korean, 旦(단) is common in literary and calendar-related Sino-Korean vocabulary.

Time / morning:

元旦 (원단) — 설날 첫날; New Year’s Day

旦夕 (단석) — 아침저녁; morning and evening

早旦 (조단) — 이른 아침; early dawn

旦明 (단명) — 밝은 아침 (rare)

Beginning / first moment:

開旦 (개단) — 시작; 시작되는 때; the beginning (rare)

旦初 (단초) — 처음 시작; the beginning

Figurative:

旦暮 (단모) — 아침저녁, 늘; constantly

旦旦 (단단) — 부지런히, 매일같이; diligently, every day (classical adverbial form)

Religious / seasonal / ceremonial:

元旦朝賀 (원단조하) — 설날 조정의 조회; New Year's Day

旦日 (단일) — 이튿날 아침; the next morning (classical documents)

In East Asia, 元旦 traditionally refers to the first dawn of the lunar new year, thus the first day of the year

Modern Chinese also uses it for January 1st (solar calendar), but older Korean/Chinese texts always mean the lunar first day.

旦 often symbolizes:

- new beginnings

- hope

- rebirth

- clarity / brightness

Classical literature uses 旦 metaphorically for the start of an era or change.

Classical citations:

《論語·陽貨》 (Analects – “Yang Huo”)

「旦日不可不勉。」

“On the very next morning one must exert oneself.”

《史記·始皇本紀》 (Records of the Grand Historian)

「旦起而視之。」

“At dawn he rose and looked at it.”

《楚辭·九歌》 (Chu Ci)

「旦夕存亡。」

“Morning and evening, life and death hang in the balance.”

《漢書·禮樂志》 (Book of Han)

「元旦朝賀。」

“On New Year’s Day (元旦), they offered tribute at court.”

The term 元旦 (“first dawn of the year”) is still used today for New Year’s Day in Chinese and Japanese.

Confusion with 但:

旦 — dawn, daybreak

但 — “but,” “only,” semantic + phonetic composition

They share visual similarity but are unrelated etymologically.