Vessel-cover character

It names a cover used in ancient ritual. In classical Chinese, 鼏 can mean the lid of a tripod cauldron, written 鼎, or a cloth cover laid over a wine vessel. The Chinese search forms 鼎盖 (simplified) and 鼎蓋 (traditional) mean “tripod-cauldron lid.”

The Book of Rites (禮記), a classical ritual text, describes a wine vessel covered with coarse cloth; another ritual description says a cauldron lid could be bundled or woven from white grass. These are different materials and vessels under one cover sense.

When is 鼏 not a vessel cover?

Some bronze inscriptions use it as a borrowed spelling of 密. The Qin Gong Gui phrase 鼏宅禹蹟 uses that borrowed character in a territorial statement: it describes Yu’s domain as settled or established, not a cauldron lid.

Han slips—narrow writing surfaces used as documents—use 密 where the transmitted ritual text writes 鼏 for a ding cover. The bronze inscription form combines 鼎, the cauldron, with 冖, the covering element. The early Chinese dictionary Shuowen records a small-seal form, a formal style of ancient Chinese writing. Dictionary accounts also connect 鼏 with 冪 and 幎, other cover-related characters.