Tangut Ideograph-18656

Li Fanwen’s Tangut dictionary glosses 𘙖 as “vat,” a large tub. Western Xia, a Tangut kingdom, created Tangut writing around 1036 for state records, Buddhist scriptures, and state identity; the earliest surviving document dates to 1072. The script drew visual cues from Chinese writing and followed an earlier Khitan example, but was not derived from Chinese. Buddhist inscriptions show use after Western Xia’s fall in 1227, including one from 1502.