Returning and sending back with 返

Early Chinese writing often used 反 itself for returning. Shirakawa Shizuka’s 字通 cites the 頌鼎 bronze inscription, where 反入 means returning or handing something back. It treats this as an earlier spelling of the return word and explains that 返 distinguished returning as 反 became common for opposition. This account describes the separation of written uses, rather than a history of the modern Japanese compounds. Heibonsha, 字通, 返

The Chinese University of Hong Kong’s database identifies bronze forms containing 辵 and the phonetic component 反, with the original meaning of returning or coming back. It cites 歲一返 on the 鄂君啟車節, returning once a year, and 返自西陽 on the 楚王酓章鐘, returning from Xiyang. It places the differentiation of 返 in Warring States and later writing, while noting that 反 continued to represent returning in Warring States, Qin, and Han texts. CUHK, 返

Older writing also varied the movement component. CUHK records 𢓉, with 彳 and 反, on the 中山王圓壺, where it means instead or conversely. Its transcription of the Shuowen defines 返 as returning, explicitly recognizes 反’s sound role, and lists 𢓉 as an alternate form with 彳. The entry supplies bronze and small-seal examples, but these establish attested forms without fixing the date when 返 first appeared. CUHK, 返