Chinese character 疆

A boundary between lands, or the territory it encloses. Early Chinese inscriptions on oracle bones (bones used for divination) and bronze objects use 畕 and 畺 for field boundaries; the later written form, 疆, combines 土 with 彊. The meaning widened from a boundary between fields to a country’s borders and territory, and then to a figurative limit. In modern Chinese, 边疆 means “frontier region” and 疆域 “territorial extent.” Japanese also uses the character for “boundary” and “limit”; in compounds it is read kyō (with a long o), and sakai for “boundary.”