Khitan Small Script Character 18C55

Its Unicode name identifies the glyph; it does not give a reading.

Khitan Small Script uses logograms (whole-word signs) and phonograms (sound signs) combined in word clusters. The number 18C55 alone cannot tell you which role this glyph plays in an inscription.

How was Khitan Small Script used?

It wrote Khitan alongside Chinese and outlasted the Liao dynasty.

Tradition credits Yelü Diela with creating it around 925, reportedly inspired by Uyghur writing, though the scripts look quite different. The oldest securely dated small-script inscriptions are from the mid-11th century.

It was used alongside Chinese under the Liao and Jin dynasties in northern China, and it appears on tomb inscriptions, monuments, mirrors, tallies, and official objects. Jin authorities banned Khitan writing in 1191; Jurchen writing adapted Khitan forms. The first small-script funerary inscriptions were identified in 1922, and decipherment remains partial as of 2026.