What 𛅹 means
It is read tie42 in the Jiangyong dialect.
The numbers mark the syllable’s pitch pattern. Nüshu data links this glyph with several Chinese characters pronounced alike locally, so the surrounding sentence identifies the intended word rather than a fixed English gloss.
How was Nüshu used in daily life?
It let local women write the speech of their community.
Nüshu took shape as local women adapted Hanzi—the Chinese character system—to write Jiangyong speech in syllables. Many had little access to Han-character literacy; they used Nüshu for songs, personal histories and letters to sworn sisters. Historically, hand-sewn books called sanzhaoshu (“third-day books”) carried wedding wishes from a bride’s friends, delivered three days after marriage.
The earliest known surviving Nüshu artifact is an inscribed bronze coin found in Nanjing, from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, a rebel state in China (1851–1864). Its message says women under heaven belong to one family.
Why do some people read Nüshu differently?
Its history carries both solidarity and painful limits.
In 2024, some young learners described Nüshu as sisterhood and resistance. An older inheritor, reflecting on forced marriage and abuse, felt the script had not made her life materially better. Both responses belong to its history: the writing can offer solidarity while recalling a painful past.
Part of the collection
Who writes 𛅹
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Questions people ask
1Why does 𛅹 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.
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How to type or find 𛅹
- Search it as
- nushu · nüshu · 女书 · 女書 · tie42 · women's script · jiangyong nushu
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
𛅹\1B179tie42 for this character.Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.