Tangut Character 173B5

The label identifies this code-point; it doesn't give a Tangut gloss. Unicode builds the name from a number assigned to each character, so it identifies the encoded slot rather than providing a Tangut reading or English translation. The form may resemble a Chinese character, but Tangut is a distinct script. Its design drew on Chinese writing and regional models such as earlier Khitan scripts, another writing tradition from the region; that influence does not tell you how 𗎵 was read. A Tangut dictionary and the surrounding passage are needed to translate it.

The Tangut script was created around 1036 under the first emperor of Western Xia, a medieval state. It was used to write the Tangut language and state and religious texts, including a Tangut edition of the Buddhist Canon, a collection of Buddhist scriptures. Surviving materials also include official and private documents, inscriptions, and translations from Chinese.

A manuscript fragment from Khara-khoto, a medieval city, probably dates to the 12th or early 13th century; it is a surviving witness, not a date for the first use of 𗎵. After Western Xia fell to the Mongols, Tangut writing continued under later dynasties before becoming obsolete.