Chinese character 䮫

It means “donkey,” with a separate “large mule” gloss.

Chinese dictionaries record 䮫 as a written variant of 驢, the standard character for donkey; other entries gloss it as a large mule. The dictionary entry or source tells you which sense it intends.

Where did 䮫 come from?

It is one form in a long written history of the donkey word.

The earliest Chinese literary evidence for the donkey word appears in Fàngmǎtān manuscripts compiled at the end of the third century BCE. These texts, written on narrow bamboo strips, use 閭, a different character with the same sound, for the donkey word. 驢 became the standard spelling later; variants including 䮫 appear in texts from the sixth century CE onward. Donkeys carried water, supplies, and people and pulled heavy carts in agriculture.

Why do dictionary meanings differ?

Historical dictionaries preserve different glosses.

Two Chinese character dictionaries show the split: 龍龕手鑑 describes 䮫 as a kind of horse, while 字彙 glosses it as a large mule. Other entries connect it to 驢. Treat these as source-specific glosses, not interchangeable everyday spellings.