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钲, an ancient Chinese percussion instrument resembling a bell or gong, was used in military settings to signal troops to halt or retreat. It is a phono-semantic compound with the metal radical 钅 indicating its material and the phonetic element 正 providing the sound. The traditional form 鉦 uses the full radical 金 but the same phonetic. Once ubiquitous in martial contexts, the character now survives mainly in historical and archaeological discussions, no longer part of everyday vocabulary.
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