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For browsers unable to display that code point (U+26A3B) as anything other than a box, the question concerns this character:

funky character

Per http://ctext.org/dictionary.pl?if=gb&char=%F0%A6%A8%BB - there are quite a few instances of the character's use in poetry since the Yuan Dynasty, and it occurs at least as late as the early Qing Dynasty in the lyrics of Gu Zhenguan (how I got started with it):

縱閒愁吹墜，不到船。

The character is not included in the Kangxi Dictionary, and I wonder whether any definition is available beyond "a kind of boat". In some of the examples (e.g. 银夜酌凉蒲萄，琵琶嘈嘈急如泻) it doesn't seem to be a boat at all, perhaps an obscure variant of some other character meaning "drinking vessel"?

I don't know much about scansion of Chinese poetry but am guessing at least it is going to be 3rd/4th tone given its location in the phrases of the cited poetry. A Japanese site (http://jigen.net/kanji/158267) suggests the rather dubious reading of "mò" (I'm assuming that's Pinyin and not some transcription system specific to Japanese) while apparently it is read "khoang" in Vietnamese (http://www.cojak.org/index.php?function=code_lookup&term=26A3B). It seems odd for the character to have such a vague existence: does anyone know how it was pronounced classically (i.e. what is the 反切) and/or have a reasonably informative gloss?

Master Sparkles
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    I agree with you on the 银. 1) The whole poem was describing a study room. 2) The following verse talked about hearing rooster calls in the room and seeing flowers outside the door. If that's case, 银 is possibly an error in handwriting. When you write cursive and 觥 would look quite similar. – Wang Dingwei Dec 08 '14 at 02:34
  • Not in 中华字海 either... – Mou某 Dec 08 '14 at 02:35
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    Maybe hang: 同樣，根據“吃語詩”全詩用同一字母的特點，我們也可考訂《苕溪漁隱叢話》的版本校勘問題。如關於東坡吃語詩中“孤航繫舸菰茭隔”之“航”字，廖德明校點曰：“舊鈔本‘航’作‘舟光’（左舟右光）。”《辭源》“航”字頭下注曰：“hanɡ 胡郎切，平，唐韻，匣。”可見“航”是匣母字，與其他見母字不同。而“舟光”雖是僻字，不見於《漢語大字典》、《辭源》等工具書，但據其右文“光”字的讀音（《辭源》光字頭下注：“ɡuānɡ 古黃切，平，唐韻，見。），可推知也屬見母。此外,“顧影”的“影”字，恐怕也有誤，當作“景”。因為“影”字屬影母，“景”字才屬見母。 – Mou某 Dec 08 '14 at 02:48
  • According to the rhymes of the example verses in your first link, mò(which indeed is pinyin) is quite unlikely. It's more possible that it is 平声, something similar to the first or second tone in Mandarin. – Wang Dingwei Dec 08 '14 at 02:50
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    Also, like Wang Dingwei sort of mentioned, I'm seeing “舟光”是“觥”的讹字。 in a few places in which case it would be gōng...(?) – Mou某 Dec 08 '14 at 04:48
  • In Unicode website, this caracter is said to be taken from a Vietnam standard ... http://www.unicode.org/cgi-bin/GetUnihanData.pl?codepoint=%F0%A6%A8%BB – fefe Dec 08 '14 at 07:40
  • @user3306356 - thank you for the enlightening quote. That line is "篙竿繫舸菰茭隔" in my edition of Su Shi's poetry (《蘇軾詩集合注》·卷二十:“西山戲題武昌王居士” - same as the 四庫全書 edition) and there is no note of an alternate reading with the strange character; however that there is such an alternate version is a good hint at the classical pronunciation. Thanks to Mr. Wang's reminder of the character 觥 (which I couldn't quite remember) I do believe the most likely pronunciation is gong1. I will have to ask a Vietnamese friend about what it means: perhaps such boats still exist in Vietnam when they don't in China.:) – Master Sparkles Dec 08 '14 at 23:16
  • Could you update the question w/an image? The character's uncommon enough that it's being rendered as a box in my browser. – Stumpy Joe Pete Dec 09 '14 at 19:42
  • @StumpyJoePete : apologies, I didn't realize that was a problem until I checked the page earlier from work. Should be fixed now. Thanks for pointing it out. – Master Sparkles Dec 09 '14 at 23:13
  • @MasterSparkles 觥 is gong1 indeed, as in 觥筹交错. And it doesn't mean boat but vessel (drinkware). – user58955 Dec 09 '14 at 23:36
  • @user58955 right I'm not disputing that- but I'm not convinced that the weird character is always just a variant for 觥, since the variant reading doesn't make sense for some examples including the Gu Zhenguan verse and more importantly the Su Shi poem noted in the quote above. – Master Sparkles Dec 09 '14 at 23:51
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    @MasterSparkles It means also drinking vessel in your quote above. 觥船 is an established word. See, e.g., http://www.zdic.net/c/5/f0/248556.htm – user58955 Dec 10 '14 at 02:02

2 Answers2

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I believe that is a mistake in transcription for 觥 (gong1) because they could look very similar in cursive script. 觥 means drinking vessel and 觥船 means a big drinking vessel, see, e.g., http://www.zdic.net/c/5/f0/248556.htm .

user58955
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  • many thanks - i got caught up pursuing some complicated idea about boats and never thought to look at the alternate possibility. well, it was a fun chance to chat about poetry.:) – Master Sparkles Dec 10 '14 at 03:26
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I asked around in my college today. The teachers had no idea, but a student just used his mobile.

It is gong, first tone, and means 'a bronze drinking vessel'

Got this from http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/47075-hard-to-find-character/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%E1%BB%AF_n%C3%B4m

It is a Chữ Nôm meaning 'module' or 'box' (maritime), according to Sky Darmos. He offered these example compounds:

～船 khoang tuyền – deck (ship)

～梩 khoang lái – cockpit

～航 khoang hàng – hold (in a ship)

～行李 khoang hành lý – hold (in a plane)

From what I know, this character does not exist in Chinese, Japanese, or Korean.

Pedroski
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    Wrong. See comments below the question. – Wang Dingwei Dec 09 '14 at 12:03
  • Haha, well that's what his dictionary very clearly stated. Do we really have a situation where Chinese people don't know the meaning or sound of a Chinese character? Certainly, the teachers in my college did not know, but one will get back to me today. See what she says. – Pedroski Dec 09 '14 at 23:13
  • Apparently baidu says it is mo4 and it is from Vietnam.But baidu doesn't seem to say what it means. – Pedroski Dec 10 '14 at 01:37
  • zdic used to say mo4 but has subsequently removed this pronunciation from it's entry, leaving no pronunciation whatsoever. – Mou某 Dec 12 '14 at 04:18