Tangut Ideograph 1860D

It has a Yama-related reading in one catalogued title. Nishida’s catalogue of Tangut translations of Buddhist texts pairs the title opening 𘘍𘋨 with a Chinese title beginning 閻魔, the written name for Yama. The first Tangut character is transcribed ndi̭ẹi in the scholarly reconstruction; that supports a Yama-related reading in this title, not a universal standalone translation.

The Tangut script was created under Western Xia’s first emperor around 1036 CE to write Tangut. Western Xia, also called Xixia, was a medieval state. The script served official state relations, Chinese classics, law codes, and Buddhist translations. After Western Xia fell, Tangut remained in use during the Yuan and Ming dynasties; a dated written item from 1502 shows its later use. It had become obsolete by the end of the Ming dynasty.

Why does Tangut script look Chinese?

Tangut resembles Chinese writing but is a separate script. The two writing systems are unrelated, so the shared visual style does not make 𘘍 a Han character. Khitan and Jurchen are other historical northern Asian scripts with Chinese-like forms; that resemblance does not show that this glyph descends from either.

A font needs Tangut coverage to display 𘘍. The algorithmic Unicode name “Tangut Ideograph-1860D” identifies the script and code point, not the character’s meaning. Outside the catalogued title, the surrounding Tangut text is needed to interpret it.