Does anyone know the deal with the compound 進捗?


I always found 進捗 to be an odd Sino-Japanese compound for two reasons:

  * it involves the character 捗 which barely occurs in Chinese, except for one rare compound 捗攄 (bu4 shu1) "to vanish" in which it has a pronunciation that suggests that its right hand side 歩 is the phonetic, instead of anything that might have a SJ reflex ちょく.
  * it is visually suggestive of 進歩 but is of course a different word with an unexpected pronunciation.

Does anyone know if the compound 進捗, which to my knowledge doesn't exist
outside of Japanese, is perhaps 和製漢語? Is it an old Sino-Japanese compound, or
something more recent?




We have the following mass of evidence:

  1. Modern Chinese dictionaries don't have anything relevant for 捗.

Quoting the _Jíyùn_ 集韻 (1037) for all cases, they would give three
definitions:

**buH** > _bù_ (like 步) [Japanese ] 'used in 捗攎 **buH lu** > _bùlú_ , collect
and store';

**bu** > pú 'used in 捗攎 or 荹攎 **bu lu** > _púlú_ , pick overgrown grass';

**trik** > _zhi_ 'to hit'.

The latter would be チョク, for sure, but the meaning does not match. More
importantly, all three definitions are apparently _Jíyùn_ -internal, and there
are only marginal appearances in actual transmitted texts.

  2. On the other hand, there is 陟, which is well-known and attested, occurs in texts many times, has the required reading ( **trik** > _zhi_ , fit for チョク), as well as the required meanings 'to ascend; to progress'.

  3. Furthermore, the compound 進陟 **tsjinH trik** > _jìn zhi_ is actually attested, in the meaning 'advance in office' from at least the _Wèi Shū_ (6th cent.), and in Tang literature already as simply 'make progress'.

  4. In Korean, the corresponding Korean word 진척 (chinch'ŏk, 'to advance, progress') is given as 進陟 in Korean dictionaries.

  5. Even further, in 大漢和辞典 there are two entries, the second marked not as a separate one, but the part of the previous:

  * 進陟 シンチョク, defined 官位などをすすめのぼす 'advance in rank' (with quote from the 7th-century _History of the Northern Dynasties_ ) and 仕事がはかどる。はかがゆく '(the work) is making progress' (without quotes).

  * 進捗 シンチョク, defined 〔邦〕すすみはかどる。仕事などが進行する。本邦で、進陟の㊁と同じく用ひる。 '(in Japanese) to make progress. (Of work or similar) to move forward. In Japanese, used instead of 進陟 in its second meaning.'

To conlude, it may be almost conclusively established that 進捗 is an anomalous
Japanese-only spelling of 進陟 'to advance, progress', which was used in Tang-
era China, later lost in Chinese, but remained in Korean and Japanese. As 陟
itself is somewhat marginal in Japanese, it is not implausible that the
spelling in the only word containing it that was used frequently has morphed
somewhat. Anyway, this 捗 is independent of the 捗 of the dictionaries.

Perhaps 捗 as a form of 陟 was actually more widespread in China itself than the
received texts on paper want to persuade us. A similar case would be 楪 in 楪子
(ちゃつ), where the Chinese dictionary definitions ('window' and similar) as well
as readings make no sense ('small plate'), but in reality this is the same
word as Mandarin 碟子, where the first character, taking form only in medieval
Chinese writing, oscillated between various semantic components and finally
picked different ones in China and Japan.

