U+5700 "圀" CJK Unified Ideograph-# Unicode Character

U+5700 "圀" CJK Unified Ideograph-# is a rare and historically significant Chinese character, traditionally considered an alternate or variant form of the more common character 国 (guó), meaning "country" or "nation." According to historical records, this particular glyph was created during the Tang Dynasty by the Empress Wu Zetian as part of a set of new characters she personally devised to assert her authority and reform the written language. The structure of "圀" combines the enclosure radical 囗 with the character 八 (eight) above 方 (direction), a design said to reflect the idea of a unified realm spanning the eight cardinal directions. Though it largely fell out of common use after Wu Zetian's reign, the character persists in specialized historical and linguistic contexts, particularly in studies of Tang-era calligraphy and epigraphy.