Tangut character 17C72

Its word meaning cannot be read from the glyph alone.

A Tangut dictionary catalogs it as L1072. That number points to an entry; it does not translate the word. To interpret 𗱲 in a record, use the dictionary entry and the surrounding Tangut text.

Where does 𗱲 appear in historical records?

It appears inside personal and household names.

A 1194 land-sale contract in the Khara-Khoto archive, a collection of surviving Tangut-era records, gives a witness’s name as 𗱲𗱲𗜓𗟻𗯿. A poll-tax account from the same archive records 𗱲𗱲𘟪 in a household entry.

In the contract, the repeated opening pair belongs to the witness’s recorded name. The full name and its documentary context are what identify the sequence.

Why was the Tangut script created?

It gave the Tangut state a writing system for its language and government.

The Tangut kingdom of Western Xia, in what is now northwestern China, created the script around 1036 under its first emperor. It served state administration and a Tangut Buddhist canon, a collection of Buddhist texts. Chinese writing influenced its design, but Tangut was a separate script for a different language.

After Western Xia fell to Mongol forces, Tangut continued to appear in texts under China’s later Yuan and Ming dynasties. The script was obsolete by the end of the Ming.