Nüshu character 1B1DA

Enter seng44 with a Nüshu input method.

As of 2026, the Rime Nüshu input method accepts romanized Jiangyong readings. Rime is keyboard software you configure with a Nüshu dictionary; enter seng44 and choose 𛇚 from the candidates.

What does 𛇚 mean?

It represents one spoken syllable, not a whole English word.

The Nüshu reading list gives it as seng44; its final digits mark tone, or the pitch pattern of the syllable. Nüshu writes local Jiangyong speech one syllable at a time, so surrounding words supply the word’s meaning.

Why did women write Nüshu?

It carried everyday letters, stories, wedding wishes, and songs.

Women in rural Jiangyong, Hunan, developed Nüshu from forms adapted from Chinese characters to local speech. With limited access to formal literacy, they used it for letters between close women friends, life stories, songs, poems, riddles, and third-day wedding books, gifts given by friends to a bride three days after her wedding. Women learned and sang texts in embroidery circles. A bronze coin from the mid-19th century is the earliest known artifact; its inscription describes all women in the world as one family. The earliest written description cited in scholarship appeared in 1931.

After 1949, everyday use waned as work and schooling changed. As of 2025, local and national authorities were working to revive it.