What the Anglo-American refers to as “law,” the German calls “Recht” and the Frenchman “droit,” the Japanese calls “ho,” a term imported from ancient China. Searching back for its oldest meaning, we find that it is a compound ideograph comprised of a character originally signifying a kind of sacred beast which accused criminals were forced to touch, its reaction instantly determining guilt or innocence, and an abbreviated form of the character for water, an ancient symbol of impartiality. Thus the original meaning combines both the concepts of revealing guilt and of fairness, a characteristic shared with the western terms. In addition, the character is used in numerous other meanings, including institution, restraint, permanence, reason or truth, exemplar, standard, and means.