Tangut character 17EFD

𗻽 is a Tangut character, not a translation of a word. Unicode's label 'Tangut Ideograph-17EFD' is an inventory name built from the code point. A Tangut dictionary index files the Tangut character 17EFD as L2174; that number points to an entry, not an English gloss. Read the entry with the sentence around it.

Tangut, also called Xixia, is the script for the now-extinct Tangut language. Its square characters took visual cues and construction principles from Chinese writing, but Tangut is a separate script. The resemblance does not give 𗻽 a Chinese reading.

Why was the Tangut script created?

Western Xia, the Tangut state, created the Tangut script around 1036 under its first emperor, Li Yuanhao, to support a distinct identity and a Tangut Buddhist canon—a collection of Buddhist scriptures. The neighboring Khitan had made two scripts about a century earlier, an example Tangut's designers followed. Tangut took square shapes and character-building principles from Chinese writing, though it was made for a different language.

After the Mongol conquest of Western Xia, Tangut texts remained in use under the Yuan and Ming dynasties; the script had become obsolete by the end of the Ming period. Surviving works include official records, private writing, and Buddhist texts. A manuscript found at the ruined city of Khara-khoto, probably from the 12th or early 13th century, preserves short Chinese stories translated into Tangut as conversations between Tang emperor Taizong and his ministers.