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神 is the simplest way to write spirit in Chinese, Japanese Kanji, and old Korean.
This single character alone will conjure up ideas of the spiritual world. 神 can also be translated as "vital awareness" as in the fact that one must know they exist to exist (I think, therefore, I am).
Other translations include:
God, deity, mysterious, divine essence, lively, spiritual being, divinity, supernatural, soul, mind, nerves, and energy. In some extended context it can mean genius or unusual.
Japanese romanizations vary a lot when this character is combined into other words. However, shin is the original pronunciation taken from Chinese into Japanese. You'll also see it romanized as kami, gami, jin, and a few others, depending on context.
The following table may be helpful for those studying Chinese or Japanese...
Title | Characters | Romaji(Romanized Japanese) | Various forms of Romanized Chinese | |
Kami | 卡米 | kǎ mǐ / ka3 mi3 / ka mi / kami | k`a mi / kami / ka mi | |
Kami | ケミ | kemi | ||
Spirit Spiritual Essence | 神 | shin / kami | shén / shen2 / shen | |
In some entries above you will see that characters have different versions above and below a line. In these cases, the characters above the line are Traditional Chinese, while the ones below are Simplified Chinese. |