Khitan small-script sign 18B4E

It marks bai in a Khitan word. Wu Yingzhe and András Róna-Tas’s 2019 analysis reads it in bayi-, “stand still, stop”; Daniel Kane’s 2009 index marked its value uncertain. The verb, not the glyph alone, carries the meaning.

How did it develop?

It was made to write Khitan. The Khitan ruled parts of northern China through the Liao state. Traditional histories credit Yelü Diela with creating the script around 925; its earliest datable surviving text is a grave inscription from 1053. A 2026 study argues it may have been formalized later under Liao emperor Shengzong. It adapted Chinese character forms, joining whole-word signs with sound blocks in vertical columns ordered right to left. Khitan large script served the same language; later Jurchen scripts adapted Khitan models. Most surviving examples are elite grave inscriptions.