Tangut character 𘌰

It is glossed as “Mongolian gazelle.”

Li Fanwen’s Tangut dictionary, a reference book for Tangut words, lists 𘌰 as entry 5707. This is a written word, not a drawing of the animal.

The Tangut script was created in 1036 under Western Xia’s first emperor as the state established its own written identity and a Buddhist canon in the Tangut language.

The script carried Buddhist sutras, official and private records, inscriptions, and translations of Chinese works. Tangut writing continued under the Yuan and Ming dynasties and became obsolete by the end of the Ming. A manuscript from the Khara-khoto site, probably from the 12th or early 13th century, shows this wider use.

Tangut drew on Chinese writing principles but was not derived from Chinese characters. The neighboring Khitan scripts, another writing system of the region, offered a precedent for creating a state script; they are not alternate forms of 𘌰.

Why does 𘌰 show as a box?

Your device needs a font that supports Tangut. Unicode identifies the character, but a browser or app needs a Tangut font to draw it. Without one, it may show an empty box or replacement mark. Fonts can also draw different forms for the same character.

Some Tangut input tools let you enter a search code and choose from candidate characters. Pasted text may still appear as a box in an app without a Tangut font, even though the character data is intact.