Tangut Character 17395

Treat “an insect name” as a broad category, not a species-level translation.

Two proposed readings are transcribed kju̱¹ and ¹ku'₂. These are scholarly reconstructions of sound, not English definitions.

For a line of Tangut text, keep the gloss provisional: the surrounding words are needed to translate the passage.

Why was Tangut writing created?

It served Western Xia government and Tangut-language writing.

Tangut writing was created in 1036 under Li Yuanhao, ruler of Western Xia. Its creation is linked to a distinct state identity and a Tangut Buddhist canon; officials also used the script for records and orders.

One early surviving record is an official document sent to a military inspector in 1072. Later texts include Buddhist translations, legal material, Chinese classics, military works, and literature. Western Xia fell in 1227, but writing continued: a Tangut inscription dates to 1502. The inscription shows the script outlasted the state; it does not establish a meaning change for 𗎕.

Is 𗎕 part of Chinese writing?

It belongs to Tangut writing, which drew on Chinese writing.

That is a historical connection between writing systems, not a Chinese reading for this character. Tangut writing developed in a region where Khitan and Jurchen scripts were also used; those regional connections do not establish that this glyph derives from either one.