Ritual Gift Character

贽 means a formal gift presented at a first meeting with a respected person. It belongs to ritual language, not the everyday meaning of “present.”

Text symbol

What 贽 means

A ceremonial offering that introduced the visitor.

Texts from before the Qin dynasty use 贽 for this offering. The Yili, an early Chinese guide to ceremonies, specifies a pheasant for a scholar, dried for summer; other texts vary the gift by the visitor’s rank. The offering signals respect and standing as well as the meeting.

In later Chinese usage, the formal visit-and-gift sense remains.

Formal and old-fashioned; not the everyday word for a present.

Don’t use it as a casual synonym for “gift.”

Who writes 贽

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Combination ideas

Formal first visit made with a gift.

Gift presented to show respect.

Bring a gift to seek an audience.

Questions people ask

Why does 贽 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.