Tangut character

Use a full Unicode escape or an HTML numeric reference. In a programming language that accepts full Unicode escapes, write \U00018747; in HTML, use 𘝇.

What does this Tangut character mean?

Its safest English gloss is “harmony.” One reconstruction writes its reading in Latin letters as nświ², while Li Fanwen’s dictionary index gives djwu. These are different scholarly transcriptions of reconstructed Tangut pronunciation, not different English meanings. Name the transcription system when citing a reading; the spellings are not ordinary English pronunciation guides.

The Tangut script was created by imperial decree for the Western Xia state and entered use in 1036. Government schools taught it, official records used it, and Buddhist texts were translated and printed from carved blocks. After Western Xia fell in 1227, Tangut writing continued in Buddhist settings; the latest known example is dated 1502.

Tangut’s square character design belongs to a wider North Asian tradition of Chinese-inspired scripts that also includes Khitan and Jurchen. That script-level connection does not make this character Chinese or establish a direct ancestry for this glyph.