What 竧 means
It is a name graph or an old gloss for upright bodily bearing.
In a name, Mandarin dictionaries give 竧 the reading jìng, roughly like “jing” with a falling tone. The older zhěn reading, roughly like “chen” with a low dipping tone, describes a body held upright. These readings belong to different records.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Education Dictionary of Chinese Character Variants (2024) says the early Chinese dictionary Shuowen does not list 竧 and cites a Ming-printed witness of 《四聲篇海》 and 《字彙補》. 《四聲篇海》 was compiled in 1208 as a large character dictionary for difficult entries. These dictionary records show a lexicographic trail, not when the graph was created.
Why do histories spell this name differently?
The name is recorded, but its written form varies by witness.
A Song-period history records a commander as 刘竧; a note says other accounts of the same episode write 刘靖 or 刘翊. When quoting the episode, keep the spelling in the edition you are using rather than silently normalizing one witness to another.
Why does 竧 show as a box?
A blank points to a font or edition problem.
A 2007 Academia Sinica conversion report flags 竧 among old/new edition missing-glyph and proofreading problems. If a box or substitute appears, check the font or source edition before changing the character.
Its readings are context-bound: a historical personal name or an older bodily-bearing definition.
When quoting a historical name, keep that source’s spelling; witnesses differ.
What it means when someone sends it to you
3 readingsDon't confuse it with
1Questions people ask
1Why does 竧 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 竧
竧\7AE7Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.