Tangut character 17BCC

The Tangut dictionary gloss is “stinking.” Its reconstructed reading is written tshie in scholarly transcription; this is a Tangut word, not a general sign for bad smells.

Tangut was the written language of Western Xia. The script was created about 1036 under Western Xia’s first emperor; it served official, private, and religious writing, continued through the Yuan and Ming periods, and became obsolete by the end of the Ming dynasty. Scholars rediscovered it in the late 19th century and largely deciphered it.

Is 𗯌 Chinese?

No. It is a historical script for the Tangut language. Its shapes can resemble Chinese characters, and Tangut texts can run vertically, but that resemblance and layout do not make it Chinese writing. The script also expressed Tangut political and cultural identity.

Check the dictionary entry against the code point. A 2010 proposal linked U+17BCC to entry 5238. As of 2026, Unicode data maps it to entry 5521 and maps entry 5238 to 𗰉. The older link explains the “wine” gloss; the current entry for this character is glossed “stinking.”

How do I type 𗯌?

Use Unicode input and a Tangut-capable font. Enter U+17BCC with your editor’s code-point tool, then use a font such as Noto Serif Tangut or Tangut Yinchuan. Without Tangut font coverage, the character may appear as a box even though the encoded text is intact.