The story of 卩

joint

卩 depicts a kneeling man, which can be seen as the variant of 人(a man). Man will surrender to power and knee down, so 卩 mean a proof which represent identity and power in ancient China, but such meaning has been replaced by 節. Now we seldom use卩, it only exists as the component of other HanZi such as 命(command), 令(to order) and 即(to approach).