Historical Chinese Flag Character

It is a historical form of 旗, meaning “flag” or “standard.”

In Mandarin, it is pronounced qí in pinyin, roughly like “chee” with rising pitch; a Cantonese entry records kei4 in Jyutping, roughly “kay” with a low tone. Chinese dictionaries gloss 𣗍 as equivalent to 旗.

A catalogue from China's Song dynasty cites it in a bronze-vessel inscription. Historical passages use the character for banners, military units, ceremonial standards, and flagpoles. Flags could identify a group or command in the field and also serve ceremonial roles.

𣗍 or 旗?

They are treated as the same word, but printed in different forms.

Chinese dictionaries explicitly gloss 𣗍 as equivalent to 旗. Keep 𣗍 when transcribing a source that prints it; 旗 is the practical choice for ordinary modern writing.

Traditional analysis breaks 旗 into 㫃, a flag or pennant element, and 其, a sound element. Early Chinese evidence also treats 㫃 as a flag image. This explains the historical connection to the flag-character family; 㫃 is not a substitute for 𣗍.

How should I use 𣗍 today?

Preserve the exact form when the source matters.

Use 𣗍 in a quotation, transcription, dictionary discussion, or typography test where the printed form matters. In casual modern writing, 旗 is the practical choice; without context, 𣗍 may look like a typo or a missing glyph.

A font without CJK Extension B coverage can show a missing-glyph box even when the text is valid. Unicode input requires a method that accepts supplementary-plane characters and a font that can display them.