Tangut Ideograph-17F0B

Its dictionary gloss is “knock” or “tap.”

The Tangut 3442 entry in Li Fanwen’s 2008 Tangut–Chinese dictionary gives Chinese 敲 (“knock/tap”) as its gloss. The reconstructed Tangut reading is written dzjwɨ̣ in scholarly notation.

Tangut writing was created around 1036 for Western Xia, a Tangut kingdom, under its first emperor. It served government, Buddhist texts and a distinct identity beside Song China. Its models drew on Khitan writing and Chinese principles without deriving from Chinese. A manuscript from Khara-Khoto probably dates to the 12th or early 13th century. Use continued into Yuan and Ming times; Tangut became obsolete by the end of the Ming dynasty.