What 狿 means
It names a wild beast in classical Chinese. One old gloss says it was eight chi long, with chi being a traditional Chinese unit of length; another compares it to a civet, a long-bodied mammal. The descriptions do not identify a definite species.
An animal catalogue in Records of the Grand Historian, a Chinese history compiled in the first century BCE, includes 獌狿. The later Book of Han, a history of the Han dynasty, preserves Yang Xiong’s 斮巨狿 in a hunting rhapsody, a long, stylized poem about a royal hunt. Hunt poetry could celebrate a ruler’s reach or caution against excess.
A 2024 reference entry notes that 狿 is absent from the Shuowen, an early Chinese character dictionary.
How do I type 狿?
Enter yan in a Chinese Pinyin input method and inspect its candidates. Which characters appear depends on that tool’s dictionary. In Microsoft Word, as of 2026, type 72FF and press Alt+X to convert the hexadecimal code.
Why does 狿 show as a box?
Your font may not contain a drawing for 狿. The selected CJK font determines the character’s shape and may show an empty box if it lacks the glyph. Switch to a CJK font that supports it.
Archaic and reference-heavy; in a message it reads as a rare literary animal name.
If you mean a familiar animal, 狿 alone does not tell readers which one.
Who writes 狿
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Questions people ask
1Does 狿 name a specific species?
No. The old descriptions do not settle on one: one stresses great size, while another compares the animal to a civet.
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How to type or find 狿
- Search it as
- 獌狿 · 𤜺 · yán · Pinyin yan · 狿 meaning · ancient beast name
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
狿\72FFyan and inspect the candidates; availability depends on the IME’s dictionary.72FF and press Alt+X to convert it.Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.