Tangut character 𗟲

It is a Tangut character; the catalogue label does not translate it. In the Sea of Writing, a Tangut dictionary, it is listed at 11.222; it also appears in a source entry for the Golden Light Sutra, a Buddhist text. These records place it in Tangut writing but do not establish an English gloss. Its meaning depends on the Tangut word and sentence where it appears.

The Tangut script was created around 1036 under Western Xia, also called Xixia, rule, to support a Tangut Buddhist canon and a distinct political identity alongside Song China. A surviving manuscript from Khara-Khoto is dated to the 12th or early 13th century. That date belongs to the manuscript and script tradition, not to this exact character.

Is Tangut Chinese?

No. Tangut borrowed ideas from Chinese writing but remained a separate script. The script was visually and structurally inspired by Chinese writing. Western Xia script-making also followed an earlier Khitan example: creating native writing systems. These are links between traditions; they do not give this glyph a Chinese reading.

Tangut served official, private, religious, and translated Chinese texts. It continued under Yuan and Ming rule after Western Xia fell, then became obsolete by the end of the Ming dynasty. In modern scholarship, researchers study, edit, and typeset it as a historical script. A reader familiar with Tangut texts may place 𗟲; without that context, it can read as an unfamiliar specialist character.

Why does 𗟲 show as a box?

Your font may lack Tangut coverage, leaving a missing-character box. The encoded character is still 𗟲.

A font can also show a historical variant glyph shape, so displays may differ while representing the same character. On BabelStone's font pages checked in 2026, Tangut Wenhai covers only part of the encoded Tangut repertoire; Tangut Yinchuan targets the full Unicode Tangut set.