Tangut character 𗶼

Tangut writing was created for the Tangut language.

In 1036, Western Xia’s first emperor, Li Yuanhao, ordered the script as part of building the state. It helped establish a distinct Tangut identity and support Buddhist texts in Tangut.

Chinese writing inspired Tangut’s forms and structure, but Tangut was a distinct script. Khitan neighbors had created scripts about a century earlier. Tangut appears in state, private, and religious texts. This entry’s dictionary gloss names no exact species; the script was rediscovered in the late 19th century and largely deciphered in the early 20th century.