Khitan Small Script Character-18B67

A historical Khitan calendar character, conventionally read sair. In dated texts it marks a month; lexicographic glosses also give “moon.” Those are two readings of one Khitan word, not two meanings to choose between.

The month–moon pairing has a cross-language echo: scholars compare Khitan sair with Written Mongolian sara(n), “moon.” The comparison explains the gloss. Whatever it resembles, the letter is Khitan.

How old is the Khitan small script?

Early Liao dynasty — but the surviving stones are later. The Khitan-led Liao state introduced its large script in 920; tradition credits Yelü Diela of the Liao ruling clan with the small script soon after, adapting sound-based elements to write the language. The oldest dated small-script monuments begin in 1053 — the creation story and the earliest evidence sit a century apart.

What survives is mostly epigraphy — epitaphs and stone monuments — and it runs into the Jin period, outlasting the Liao court. The Jurchens later built their own large and small scripts on the Khitan model; that succession still leaves 𘭧 a Khitan letter.

How do I type or display 𘭧?

An input method that reaches U+18B67, plus a font that covers Khitan. The character is text, not artwork — the installed font draws it. In real Khitan text it also behaves unusually: the script stacks letters into word-sized clusters ordered left-to-right then top-to-bottom, and full support spans vertical, horizontal, and plain linear layouts.

An empty square means the font predates the block — Khitan Small Script entered Unicode only in 2020 — or skips it. Swap the font first; genuine clustered text additionally needs an editor that handles Khitan's stacked layouts.