What 𗜴 means
“Crooked, hollow.” That is the English gloss attached to this character in Tangut lexicography.
The Tangut script, also called the Xixia script, was created under the first emperor of the Western Xia state around 1036 to write the Tangut language. After Mongol forces ended Western Xia, the script remained in use during the Yuan and Ming dynasties, then became obsolete by the end of the Ming.
Tangut characters look somewhat like Chinese writing, but Tangut is a separate script for a different language. Its history overlaps with the Khitan and Jurchen state scripts in the region; that shared setting does not establish that 𗜴 descends from either.
Why does a Tangut dictionary identify a different manuscript glyph as 𗜴?
The dictionary’s 𗜴 does not match the manuscript glyph. A Unicode proposal published in 2024 compares an entry in Lǐ Fànwén’s Tangut-Chinese dictionary with the surviving block-printed Tangut dictionary Sea of Writing and calls that identification erroneous. The mismatch is between a modern dictionary entry and an old source, not an alternate form of 𗜴.
A historical-script character suited to Tangut text, dictionary work, or discussion of the script.
Its Chinese-like appearance does not make it a Chinese character.
Who writes 𗜴
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What it means when someone sends it to you
2 readingsTreat it as a lexical character; the surrounding text helps establish its pronunciation and grammatical role.
Don't confuse it with
1Questions people ask
1Why might 𗜴 display as an empty box?
It can happen when the font or app lacks a Tangut glyph. The box is a missing-character placeholder; it changes the display, not the character’s encoded identity.
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How to type or find 𗜴
- Also called
- L2008-4368
- Search it as
- 17734 · Tangut · Xixia script · Western Xia · crooked · hollow · Wenhai
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
𗜴\17734Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.