Han character 丗

An old variant of 世, with a second use for 30.

Early forms leading to 世 appear in oracle-bone inscriptions—writing carved on bones used to ask about the future—and on bronze objects. The variant 丗 appears beside 世 in Han clerical script, a formal Chinese writing style used during the Han dynasty, and in later manuscripts. Its printed five-stroke form is a later stage in that history.

An older sense was a generation or succession—a line from parent to child, traditionally reckoned as thirty years—and it broadened to era, dynasty, and the human world. In Japanese, 世 can also refer to a ruler’s reign. Older numerical writing uses 丗 for thirty, a sense linked to 卅.

Let context decide which sense you are seeing.

A lone 丗 needs context to settle its sense.

Beside a date or number, it may mean thirty; in a lineage or era phrase, read it through 世. If someone sends only 丗, ask for context when the distinction matters. Repeated as 丗丗, it means generation after generation, corresponding to 世世.

The font on your device draws the character; if you see an empty box, that font lacks 丗, but the character’s identity is unchanged.