Origin

This character combines a slanted stroke with a square representing a field. In ancient China, the character originally depicted a horned creature or demon-like figure, with the field-like square forming the body and the slanted stroke suggesting a horn or wild, distorted feature. Over time, the shape became more stylized and abstract, but it retained its meaning of something supernatural and frightening. The combination of these simple elements came to represent the idea of a ghost or devil—something otherworldly and menacing that doesn't belong to the ordinary, orderly world of fields and human civilization.