Go-on  It preceded the readings. Both "go-on" and "kan-on" exhibit characteristics of Middle Chinese. Introduced to Japan during the 5th and 6th centuries, when China was divided into separate Northern and Southern dynasties, "go-on" readings are possibly imported either directly from the Southern dynasty or the Korean Peninsula. This explanation is based mainly on historical reasoning: there was an influx of thinkers from China and Korea to Japan at that time, including both Buddhist and Confucian practitioners. However, there is no historical documentation to conclusively demonstrate that "go-on" readings are actually based on southern Chinese. That being said, Shibatani has noted that go-on readings make up the first of three waves of Chinese loans to the Japanese language, the others being "kan-on" and tou-sou-on (meaning Tang Song sound), with "go-on" mainly associated with Buddhism   "Go-on" readings are particularly common for Buddhist and legal terminology, especially those of the Nara and Heian periods. These readings were also used for the Chinese characters of the ancient Japanese syllabary used in the "Kojiki". When "kan-on" readings were introduced to Japan, their "go-on" equivalents did not disappear entirely. Even today, "go-on" and "kan-on" readings still both exist. Many characters have both pronunciations. For instance, the name "Shōtoku" (in "go-on") is pronounced as such in some derived place-names, but "Seitoku" (in "kan-on") in others. Both are possible today, depending on what is being referred to. However, some "go-on" sounds are now lost. Even though monolingual Japanese dictionaries list a complete inventory of "go-on" for all characters, some were actually reconstructed using the "fanqie" method or were inferred to be the same as their modern homophones. "Go-on" readings were formerly referred to as . The term 'go-on' was first introduced in the mid-Heian, likely by people who wished to promote "kan-on" readings. During the Tang dynasty, people in Chang'an referred to their own way of reading characters as and all other readings, particularly those originating south of the Yangtze, as or one of many other similar names. It is thought that Japanese students studying in China adopted this practice, and, taking the position that the Chang'an-based manner of elocution were the correct ones, they also began to refer to the previously imported, unfashionable kanji readings as ""go-on"".