Chinese character 綖

It names the cloth-covered board atop a formal 冕 crown.

As of 2026, the earliest known textual witness for this crown-cover sense is the passage for Duke Huan’s second year in the Zuo zhuan, a classical Chinese chronicle. It lists 綖 among regulated crown and dress parts. A commentary on the Liji, a classic about ritual, explains 延 as the cover over 冕; 旒 are the bead strands hanging at its front and back. 綖 is the crown’s covered top, not the whole crown or its hanging beads.

Chinese dictionaries also record two other senses: 綖 is used for 延 in a verb meaning “to delay” or “slacken,” and it is listed as a variant of 線 for “thread” or “line.” These are separate dictionary senses; the sentence or intended reading matters.