Chinese character 黾

It names an amphibian and appears in 黾勉, a word for striving. The earliest forms of the character found in oracle-bone inscriptions, ancient writing on bones and turtle shells, resemble the animal, though their use there is unclear. Early bronze inscriptions—writing on bronze objects—also use the graph as a clan emblem, a place name, and the name of an arrow. In Classical Chinese, an older literary form of Chinese, it names an amphibian; the Book of Songs, an early Chinese poetry collection, uses 黾勉 for striving. As of 2026, Japanese reference works retain both senses.