Tangut Component 178

Its role is structural, not a word to translate by itself.

Some Tangut components serve as dictionary radicals—the labels entries are filed under—but references use different systems. Tangut writing resembles Chinese, yet it was made for a different language.

Tangut script was created around 1036 under Western Xia’s first emperor to write the Tangut language. The state used it for official writing and Tangut translations of Buddhist and Chinese works. The surviving record includes manuscripts and printed works from the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Writing continued after Western Xia fell but was obsolete by the end of the Ming dynasty. Rediscovered in the late 19th century, it was largely deciphered in the early 20th century.