CJK Compatibility Ideograph FA02

拓 is 拓’s legacy-coded form; its meanings come from 拓.

The Chinese character 拓 can mean “expand” or “open up.” A Han-era Chinese dictionary, 《說文解字》, records an older “pick up” sense. An ink rubbing is an impression made by placing paper on a carved inscription and applying ink.

A 2023 historical study argues that 拓 was not established with the rubbing sense until the late Northern Song. The same study notes earlier rubbing terms such as 摹, 打, and 搨; 搨 is an older related term. Japanese compounds include 開拓 (“opening up”) and 拓本 (a rubbing).

Why does 拓 map to 拓?

It maps to 拓; its separate code preserves a Korean reading distinction.

KS X 1001, a Korean character standard, encoded certain Hanja twice to keep different Korean readings distinct. It pairs 拓 with 탁 and 拓 with 척. Unicode maps 拓 to 拓, so the split belongs to the old encoding, not to a separate everyday definition.

Compatibility normalization NFKC or NFKD converts 拓 to 拓; NFC or NFD does not. For ordinary Chinese, Japanese, or Korean text, use 拓. Retain 拓 only when the original code point is part of the source record you need to preserve.