Tangut character 𗃫

𗃫 refers to poverty or need in Tangut. Tangut lexicons also use it to transcribe Middle Chinese 表, so the surrounding text tells you whether it is a word or a transcription.

Text symbol

What 𗃫 means

As a Tangut word, it means “poor,” “in need,” or “impoverished.”

Scholars reconstruct its reading as pjiw¹ in Latin-letter notation. Tangut lexicons also use it to transcribe 表 in Middle Chinese, an older stage of Chinese.

The Tangut script was created under the first Western Xia emperor about 1036 CE. It served official, private, and religious writing, and remained in use under Yuan and Ming rule until becoming obsolete by the end of the Ming dynasty. 𗃫 appears in two 12th-century Tangut reference books, Wénhǎi (“Sea of Writing”) and Tóngyīn (“Homophones”). A blank box means the font cannot render it.

Historical and specialist.

Part of the collection

𗼇

Tangut Script

Who writes 𗃫

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Questions people ask

Why does 𗃫 show as a box on some devices?

Not every system ships a font for the Tangut block. Where none is installed, the character shows as an empty box; adding a font such as Noto fixes it. The character itself is still correct and copies correctly.