U+521A "刚" CJK Unified Ideograph-# Unicode Character

U+521A "刚" CJK Unified Ideograph-# is a Chinese character that primarily means "just" or "firm" and is commonly used in modern Mandarin to express the concept of something happening immediately before the present moment, as in "刚才" (just now), or to denote hardness or rigidity, as in "刚强" (firm and unyielding). Its written form combines the radical for knife or sword on the right with a phonetic component on the left, reflecting its historical semantic ties to strength and sharpness. This character is frequently encountered in everyday writing and digital communication across Chinese-speaking communities.