Tangut Mud Character

It means “mud” in Tangut.

The Tangut script was created in 1036 for Western Xia (Xixia)’s official writing and to mark its distinct identity from its Chinese neighbor. Chinese writing inspired its square shapes and character combinations, but it was made for Tangut, not Chinese. The nearby Khitan people had state scripts before 1036; that was a political precedent, not evidence that 𗗝 came from a Khitan character.

Surviving Tangut books range from Buddhist translations to Chinese classics, military handbooks, and literature. A stone pillar bearing a Buddhist sacred phrase, dated 1502, shows Tangut writing persisted after Western Xia ended.