Tangut Character 1777A

Its catalog label identifies the character; it does not translate it.

𗝺 belongs to Tangut, the historical script used to write the Tangut language in northwestern China. The Unicode name “Tangut Ideograph-1777A” combines the script name with the code point; it gives neither a Tangut reading nor a plain-language gloss. The Li Fanwen Tangut dictionary indexes this exact glyph under entry 4121.

Tangut signs may resemble Chinese characters, and Tangut writing drew on Chinese design principles, but the scripts are distinct. A Chinese gloss in a reference translates a Tangut entry; it does not make 𗝺 a Chinese character or give it a Chinese reading.

Why was the Tangut script created?

It served a state, a language, and Buddhist learning.

Created about 1036 under the first emperor of Western Xia, the script supported a distinct Tangut political identity and the translation of a Buddhist canon. Western Xia was a Tangut state in northwestern China. Tangut writing drew on Chinese design and was also shaped by the example of neighboring Khitan scripts.

Texts from Khara-khoto show that the script was used beyond religion: works include Confucian books, encyclopedias, military treatises, literature, and Buddhist texts. Tangut was traditionally written in vertical columns; Unicode 17.0 describes modern writing horizontally, from left to right. The script continued under the Yuan and Ming after Western Xia fell and was obsolete by the end of the Ming. The Khara-khoto library, excavated in 1908–1909, later gave scholars a large collection of Tangut texts.