Rare variant of 無

It writes the same Chinese word as 無.

Taiwan’s Ministry of Education lists 𣞣 as a rare form of 無 in its Dictionary of Chinese Character Variants. When an older text uses this form, read it as 無; use 無 in ordinary Chinese writing.

How did the written form develop?

It descends from older written forms of 無.

Taiwan’s Ministry of Education traces 𣞣 through the shift from an older seal-script form to clerical script, a later, more squared style of Chinese writing. The 11th-century Jiyun, a Chinese rhyme dictionary (a guide to character pronunciation), records 𣞣 as an alternate form of 無.

Accounts of 無’s origin disagree. Duan Yucai, a Qing-dynasty scholar, read Shuowen Jiezi (an early Chinese dictionary) as saying that a graph for lush growth was later borrowed to write “not have.” One interpretation of late Shang oracle-bone inscriptions—divination records carved on turtle shells and animal shoulder blades, about 1300–1050 BCE—sees the old form of 無 as a dancer holding an ornament. It links that form to rain-making dances for river and mountain spirits; bronze inscriptions later use 無 for “not have,” while 舞 became the separate character for dance.