Tangut character 17382

Its reading is reconstructed; its stand-alone meaning is not settled. 𗎂 is a character in Tangut, the script of the Western Xia state. One scholarly reconstruction writes its sound as tśja¹; that is a technical estimate of pronunciation, not an English translation.

The character appears in two Tangut reference works, the Sea of Writing and Homophones, from the 12th century. As of 2026, it has no reliable one-word English gloss on its own; a surrounding Tangut passage supplies the sense.

Why was Tangut writing created?

Tangut writing was developed around 1036 under the first Western Xia emperor. It served state administration and a distinct state identity; an early aim was a Tangut Buddhist canon, a collection of Buddhist scriptures. The script drew on the visual style of Chinese writing but represented the Tangut language.

After Western Xia fell to the Mongols, the script continued under Yuan and Ming rule, then fell out of use by the end of the Ming dynasty. Its surviving texts include official and private writing, Buddhist scriptures, inscriptions, and manuscripts.