Tangut Component 587

It is a writing component, not a complete Tangut word.

Tangut dictionaries and scholarship use components to index, describe, and analyze complete characters. The number 587 is a catalogue label, not a translation of the component.

How did the Tangut script develop?

The Tangut court established it as the state’s official script in 1036. Li Yuanhao, ruler of the Tangut state of Western Xia, sponsored it; Yeli Renrong is associated with its creation and spread. An official document from 1072 is the earliest surviving example. Neither date shows when 𘩊 itself first appeared.

The Western Xia court used it for government records and translations of Chinese works, including the Classic of Filial Piety and Erya, a Chinese reference dictionary. A separate state script also affirmed Tangut political identity, while Sinitic, or Chinese-language, writing continued alongside it.

Tangut characters follow a square, component-based model influenced by Chinese writing; possible Khitan influence remains debated. In the mid-12th-century, the Sea of Characters, a Tangut dictionary organized by rhyme, analyzed complete characters through their component parts. Tangut writing continued after Western Xia fell in 1227 and into the Ming period. Modern Tangut dictionaries and scholarship use components to sort and describe complete characters.