Tangut character 18458

𘑘 is glossed “celestial being”; its reconstructed reading is śji.

śji is a scholarly reconstruction, not a modern spoken form. The Tangut lexicon Sea of Characters analyzes 𗢨, “person,” as 𘑘 with its top strokes removed; it also connects the top of 𘑗, “mountain,” with 𘑘’s written form. In 𘑘𗹙, the pair names Daoism, also called the “Teaching of the Immortals”; its meaning is more than two standalone glosses placed together.

Why does 𘑘 look Chinese?

It is Tangut writing in a Chinese-inspired style.

Tangut writing was created in 1036 for state-building in Western Xia, whose rulers sponsored a major project to compile Buddhist texts. The script also carried official documents and translated literature.

The earliest known dated Tangut writing may be from 1070/1071. A Khara-khoto manuscript fragment probably dates to the 12th or early 13th century; the latest known Tangut inscription is dated 1502.