Tangut character for “bird”

A Tangut dictionary gives its meaning as “bird.” This is a written word for the animal, not a picture of one.

Commissioned around 1036 by Western Xia’s first ruler, the script wrote Tangut and marked the state as culturally distinct. Western Xia was in northwestern China. Tangut writing appears in official records, private texts, and Buddhist books; it continued after the Mongol conquest into the Yuan and Ming dynasties, and became obsolete by the end of the Ming dynasty. Tangut resembles Chinese writing but is a separate script; Khitan influence has been proposed, but remains uncertain.