Ideographic Annotation Three Mark

Use Unicode hex input with 3194.

In Word or Outlook on Windows, type 3194 and press Alt+X. On macOS, enable Unicode Hex Input, hold Option, and type 3194. In a GTK-based Linux app, press Ctrl+Shift+U, enter 3194, then Space or Enter.

On mobile, use a character picker; hex entry depends on the keyboard or app.

What does ㆔ mean?

It marks the third return point in Japanese kanbun reading.

Kanbun is classical Chinese read in Japanese. Kaeriten (“return marks”) give reading order. ㆔ marks the third point: after reading farther in the text, the reader returns to it. It is an instruction, not the number 三.

Readers added the marks to Chinese classics and Buddhist texts so they could read them in Japanese. The earliest cited Japanese example is an annotation on a Chinese text from the Huayan Buddhist tradition dated 788. This dates the convention, not the exact character.

Why was ㆔ made?

To preserve the Chinese text while guiding a Japanese reading.

Schools and periods balanced close, Chinese-shaped readings with freer Japanese paraphrases, though the marks stayed procedural.

Korean kugyŏl also marked Literary Chinese for reading in Korean. Scholars compare its reversal and point marks with Japanese annotations; the traditions are parallel, but ㆔ belongs to the Japanese set.