Tangut character 𗹭

Its glosses include “tall” and “high”; the surrounding Tangut text determines which fits.

A Tangut dictionary index places the entry under “tall.” One character analysis reads 𗹭 as “high” in 𗹼, a character glossed “kidney.” These are contextual glosses, not evidence that its meaning changed over time.

Why does 𗹭 look like Chinese writing?

It follows Chinese-inspired design, but belongs to the separate Tangut script.

Western Xia’s Tangut script was created around 1036 under the kingdom’s first emperor. It served state-building and Buddhist translation, and its texts include official, private, secular, and religious writing.

After Western Xia fell, Tangut continued in Yuan and Ming use before becoming obsolete. The neighboring Khitan scripts were a precedent for states creating their own writing systems—a historical parallel, not an ancestry claim about 𗹭.