The original form was written as "申", a pictographic character of lightning. In fact its original meaning was lightning too. Later it meant electricity and electron. Ancient Chinese people thought lightning was caused by the clash of positive and negativegaseous forces. In 1st century AD, it had the records of static electricity. However, at that time, people did not know very much about electricity. China today consumes large quantity of electricity. Besides coal, China is also developing other energy electricity.