Tangut Character 1721A

A Tangut dictionary glosses it as “birth” or “to be born.”

Li Fanwen’s dictionary indexes 𗈚 as character 1460 and pairs it with Chinese 誕. That is a historical dictionary gloss, not enough context to translate a whole message on its own.

The twelfth-century Tangut dictionary known in translation as the Sea of Writing records this glyph. That establishes its use by then, not when this particular character was invented.

Is 𗈚 a Chinese character?

No; it belongs to Tangut, a distinct script influenced by Chinese.

Tangut writing was made for the Tangut language. Its characters draw on Chinese shapes and some principles for assembling written forms, but the script did not derive from Chinese. The resemblance does not make 𗈚 readable as ordinary Chinese.

The Western Xia court commissioned the script in 1036 for state-building, a Tangut Buddhist canon, and a distinct political identity. This followed neighboring Khitan rulers, who had created two scripts about a century earlier; one drew heavily on Chinese forms. Tangut writing later carried Buddhist texts, Chinese translations, Confucian and military works, and literature. Surviving sources cluster in the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and Buddhist writing continued after Western Xia fell in 1227.

How do I enter or display it?

A font draws it; specialist input methods locate it.

If the selected font lacks this Tangut glyph, a box or fallback may appear. That points to missing font coverage, not a different character or reading.

Specialist Tangut input methods use Li Fanwen’s four-corner numbering to look up characters; layouts and character availability vary.