Chinese cabbage character

In Chinese it names cabbage; in Japanese, a turnip.

Southern History records 菘菜 at a meal; 說文, an early Chinese dictionary, omits 菘. Chinese cabbage was cultivated in China by the ancient Spring and Autumn–Warring States period; that dates the crop, not the character.

Later Chinese usage favored 白菜; 菘菜 was distinguished from 蔓菁, a name for turnip-like greens. In Japan, 菘 is すずな, an old turnip name in the Japanese Seven Herbs tradition.