What 竴 means
It describes a joyful appearance. Chinese dictionaries gloss 竴 cūn as “joyful in appearance”; Japanese references give shun and yorokobu-sama. Sent alone, read it as literary delight.
The earliest record found here is the c. 543 Yupian. The Ministry of Education's 2024 record says Shuowen omits 竴 and cites Yupian's 喜貌; Guangyun and Kangxi keep that gloss. Its documented job was lexical: naming a joyful appearance. Its 立 + 尊-shaped build links it to the 尊 series. As of 2026, no newer slang or cohort reading is documented in the sources checked.
Is 竴 an emoji?
No; it is a typed Han character. Font design may vary without changing its sense. If an IME misses it, use the palette, search U+7AF4, or enter Cangjie YTTWI.
Rare and literary-looking; unexpected in ordinary chat.
Do not assume it is a familiar joy emoji.
Questions people ask
1Why does 竴 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 竴
竴\7AF4Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.