Chinese character 鄸

It names an ancient place associated with the state of Cao.

A passage in the Zuozhuan, a classical Chinese chronicle, is headed 昭公二十年 and says 曹公孫會自鄸出奔宋: Gongsun Hui of Cao fled from 鄸 to Song. So 鄸 identifies the place he left.

Later Chinese dictionaries retain the place-name sense and record variant written forms and more than one reading.

How is 鄸 pronounced?

In Mandarin, it sounds roughly like “mung” with a rising tone; Pinyin writes méng.

Cantonese records give mung4 for an old place in Lu and mung6 for one in Cao; mung6 is also listed as a surname reading. Both Jyutping forms sound roughly like “moong,” ending in the ng nasal; the final digit marks the tone.

A Taiwanese Mandarin dictionary gives méng for the Cao place-name entry. For an old citation, follow its language and dictionary tradition; one Mandarin reading does not settle every entry.

Is 鄸 a variant of 𨞯?

Yes. Chinese variant dictionaries list 𨞯 and 𨟁 as forms related to 鄸.

This is a documented dictionary relationship, not one inferred from visual resemblance. 夢 is the ordinary character for “dream”; 鄸 names a place, so the two are not interchangeable.