兕

1. The animal: A rhinoceros. (Note: While often specified as "female" in dictionaries, it generally functions as a term for the species).

2. Ritual Vessel: A cup or drinking horn fashioned from rhinoceros horn (e.g., 兕觥), particularly common in contexts of banquets and ancestral offerings.

• Comparison with 犀 (xī): Both glyphs refer to the rhinoceros and are frequently used interchangeably to evoke hardness, rarity, or exoticism. If both appear in a single passage, check for a deliberate contrast in species or size.
• Connotations: Often associated with high social status and ritual propriety (in vessel form), material indestructibility, or the exotic nature of the southern and western borderlands.

Readings include the Tang-period //zǐ// and the modern Mandarin //sì//.

A stable glyph that serves as a semantic core for related characters, such as 犀 (rhinoceros), centering on the image of the animal's horn.

In high-register or ritual texts, the meaning frequently shifts from the animal itself to an object derived from it. Contexts involving wine and offerings typically indicate the vessel sense.