Tangut Character 171AB

The gloss belongs to the full phrase, not to 𗆫 alone.

In a reconstructed Tangut example, 𗆫 is the final character in 𘜶𗈁𗆫, translated “thoughts of great compassion.” That phrase gives context, but its translation does not establish a one-word English gloss for the last character.

How was Tangut used?

It wrote the Tangut language in official, private, and religious texts.

The Tangut script, also called the Xixia script, wrote Tangut, a language spoken in Western Xia, a state in what is now northwestern China. The script was created under the state's first emperor around 1036. That dates the writing system, not 𗆫's first surviving appearance. Tangut texts include official records, private writing, Buddhist translations, inscriptions, and manuscripts. After Western Xia fell to the Mongols, the script continued under the Yuan and Ming dynasties and became obsolete by the end of the Ming dynasty. It was rediscovered in the late 19th century and largely deciphered in the early 20th century, notably through the work of scholar N. A. Nevskij.

Is 𗆫 a Chinese character?

No: it belongs to a separate script.

Tangut characters have a square, stroke-based style that resembles Chinese ideographs, but the writing systems are unrelated. Tangut was traditionally written top to bottom in columns ordered right to left, like traditional Chinese page layout. As of 2026, modern editions commonly print Tangut horizontally, from left to right.