Tetragram for Labouring

In the Taixuan jing, an ancient Chinese book that sought guidance through patterns, 𝍕 names 勤, pronounced qín in Mandarin, for “diligence” or sustained effort. This entry ties effort to hard conditions.

Text symbol

What 𝍕 means

It marks the 勤 entry: steady effort under strain.

Han Chinese scholar Yang Xiong finished it around 2 BCE as a companion to the older I Ching (Book of Changes), offering another pattern-based way to seek guidance. Fan Wang, a scholar of the Jin dynasty, edited and explained the surviving version. In 勤, winter cold hides inner strength; the readings include effort that succeeds and toil that earns nothing.

Its 81 figures combine four lines, each solid, split once, or split twice. During the Song dynasty, scholar Shao Yong promoted the book and read its diagrams alongside the I Ching; a 2021 scholarly study also reads the figures philosophically.

A font-drawn text symbol; it does not switch to emoji artwork.

Part of the collection

𝌆

Tai Xuan Jing Symbols (Tetragrams)

Questions people ask

Why does 𝍕 show as a box on some devices?

Not every system ships a font for the Tai Xuan Jing Symbols block. Where none is installed, the character shows as an empty box; adding a font such as Noto fixes it. The character itself is still correct and copies correctly.