What 𗶍 means
“Demon” is a compound gloss, not a solo translation.
A scholarly Tangut lexicon reconstructs its reading as be̱²: roughly a b sound followed by an e-like vowel made farther back in the mouth; the raised ² marks a Tangut tone category. A Tangut study glosses 𗈘𗶍 as “demon,” assigning that meaning to the full sequence.
Why was Tangut writing created?
It was a state writing system for Western Xia.
Emperor Li Yuanhao commissioned the Tangut script in 1036, and Yeli Renrong is credited with designing it. It served official writing and a Tangut Buddhist canon, a collection of scriptures. A manuscript from Khara-Khoto probably dates to the 12th or early 13th century. Tangut writing continued into the Yuan period in Buddhist texts and translated secular works.
Is 𗶍 Chinese?
No; it belongs to a separate Tangut writing system.
Tangut writing was modeled visually on Chinese characters and had a precedent in the Khitan script, another regional writing system. It was made to write Tangut, not Chinese; the visual influence does not mean the characters share a reading.
A historical Tangut character; its compound gloss does not decode it by itself.
“Demon” is the gloss for 𗈘𗶍 as a whole, not 𗶍 alone.
Who writes 𗶍
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Related characters
2
Combination ideas
1Questions people ask
1Why does 𗶍 show as a box on some devices?
Because that device's fonts have no glyph for it. The character is still correct and still copies correctly — the box is a missing glyph, not a broken character.
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How to type or find 𗶍
- Also called
- L2008-1172
- Search it as
- Tangut script · Xixia script · Tangraph · Tangut reading · 𗈘𗶍
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
𗶍\17D8DCodes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.