Nüshu character pang44

Its Jiangyong reading is pang44; 伴 is one associated gloss.

A Unicode reading list gives this sign as pang44; a Nüshu character list pairs it with Chinese 伴 (“companion”). Nüshu signs record local syllables and may represent similar-sounding words, so the Chinese character is a clue rather than a full English translation.

Why did Jiangyong women use Nüshu?

It let Jiangyong women write and share their local speech.

Historically, women used Nüshu for letters between sworn sisters (close friends joined by a pledge), autobiographies, songs, and “third-day books”—good-wish gifts that friends gave a bride three days after her wedding. They sang and taught the script while sewing, and embroidered characters on cloth. Nüshu developed from Chinese-character forms into a syllabic way to write local speech. The earliest documentary mention is in a county survey written in 1931 and published in 1933; it describes women singing with written fans.

Public preservation gave Nüshu a new role: workshops began in Jiangyong in 2003, and China listed it as national intangible cultural heritage in 2006.