What 册 means
It names a book or volume and can count them. After a number, it marks how many books or numbered volumes. Its ancestor pictured tied writing strips.
An ancestor of 册 appears beside 典 in inscriptions carved on shells and bones during the Shang period of ancient China. Both graphs are associated with written records and ceremony; the bundle sense later widened to registers, albums, and booklets.
What it means when someone sends it to you
2 readings册 after a number
一册 counts one book; 第二册 is the second volume.
Inside 册封
A formal conferral of rank or title, not book-counting.
Don't confuse it with
1Questions people ask
1Why does 册 show as a box on some devices?
Because that device's fonts have no glyph for it. The character is still correct and still copies correctly — the box is a missing glyph, not a broken character.
How to type 册
Windows (Word)
Alt+XType 518C, then Alt+X to get 册.
Windows
Win+Rrun charmap for the full table, or use the emoji picker's Ω symbols tab (Win + .).
macOS
Control+Command+SpaceOpen the character viewer and search “cjk unified ideograph-518c”.
Linux
Ctrl+Shift+UType 518c, then Enter or Space.
HTML
册CSS
\518CCodes and encoding1 code points
HTML decimal
册
HTML hex
册
CSS content
content: "\518C";
Each escape is closed by the next backslash; a trailing space is needed before a literal hex digit.
URL encoded
%E5%86%8C
1
On screen
1
Code points
1
JS .length
3
UTF-8 bytes
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.