Tangut character 𗌲

Its dictionary gloss is “flag” or “banner.” A scholarly reconstruction records its reading as *wjạ¹; the leading asterisk marks a reconstructed form rather than a directly recorded pronunciation.

Created under Western Xia’s first emperor about 1036, the Tangut script served Buddhist texts and state writing. Western Xia was a Tangut state in what is now northwestern China. The script drew on Chinese writing and earlier Khitan scripts, yet remained distinct. It later carried official records and translations of Chinese and Tibetan works, remained in written use during the Yuan and Ming dynasties, then fell out of use.

Why does 𗌲 show as a square?

A missing Tangut font usually leaves an empty square.

Tangut was traditionally written vertically, while digital text often runs horizontally. In Unicode 13.0, a correction to component 𘪼 changed this character’s glyph shape.