What 𩳟 means
A 1666 dictionary records it as 魅.
字彙補 (Zihui Bu) is a Qing-era supplement to the earlier Ming character dictionary 字彙. That record ties this form to the same word, rather than naming a separate creature.
The word 魅 is older than the 𩳟 spelling. An oracle-bone sign—carved on bone or turtle shell for divination—has been proposed as an early form of 魅, but scholars dispute the reading; it does not establish 𩳟’s origin. Chinese texts from before the Qin dynasty unified China describe 魅 as threatening nonhuman beings: monsters from distant lands, ghostlike presences, and spirits believed to arise from old things. These senses grew more settled in Han-era writing; after the second century, the old-thing spirit sense increasingly predominated. Later, 魅 in 魅力 came to mean charm or attraction.
Use 𩳟 when reproducing a source’s exact historical spelling; use 魅 for ordinary modern writing.
Don’t read it as a second spirit category: the dictionary identifies it with 魅.
Who writes 𩳟
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Related characters
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Questions people ask
1Why does 𩳟 show as a box on some devices?
Not every system ships a font for the CJK Unified Ideographs Extension B block. Where none is installed, the character shows as an empty box; adding a font such as Noto fixes it. The character itself is still correct and copies correctly.
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How to type or find 𩳟
- Search it as
- mei character · chinese ghost character · chinese demon character · 魅 variant · old 魅 form · zihui bu
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
𩳟\29CDFCodes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.