Nüshu syllable sign

A lone sign gives one syllable, not its word.

Nüshu is the syllabic script for local speech in Jiangyong, Hunan. The listed reading for 𛋟 is yn13, a reference transcription; several spoken words can share a syllable, so nearby writing tells which word is meant.

Why did women in Jiangyong use Nüshu?

It gave women a way to write their own local speech.

Nüshu adapts shapes from Chinese characters to record speech by syllable. In rural Jiangyong, many women had limited access to formal learning in Chinese characters; they passed the script among mothers, daughters, and friends.

They used Nüshu in poems, autobiographies, letters, and third-day wedding booklets—good-wish messages friends gave a bride three days after her marriage. Historically, women also embroidered it on cloth and read or sang it together while sewing. The earliest known Nüshu object is a coin from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (1851–1864), bearing a saying that women everywhere belong to one family. An early written account from 1931 describes the script; since 2002, heritage programs have also treated Nüshu as a tradition to preserve.