Tangut character 18799

In Tangut, 𘞙 means “former times” or “the past.” Tangut was an extinct language written in its own script. Scholars reconstruct this character’s reading as njwo, a scholarly Latin-letter notation—not a Chinese reading.

The Tangut script was developed around 1036 under Western Xia’s first emperor for state and cultural work. It also carried private writing and Buddhist books, sutras, inscriptions, and manuscripts. After Western Xia fell, people continued writing Tangut under later dynasties until the script became obsolete.

Tangut’s square signs draw on visual conventions also found in Chinese writing, but Tangut is a distinct script, not a set of Han characters. It was traditionally written in vertical columns, top to bottom and right to left; modern scholarship usually prints it horizontally, left to right.

How do I type 𘞙?

Use a Tangut input method or direct Unicode entry. Some code-based Tangut input schemes need a dictionary file loaded before they offer candidates. If the tool supports gloss lookup, search “former times” or the scholarly reading njwo.

An editor with hexadecimal Unicode entry can use U+18799 for this character. A Tangut handwriting tool is another option.

Why does 𘞙 show as a box—or look different?

A Tangut-capable font controls whether it appears. Unicode stores the character, but fonts draw it differently; Tangut references document historical glyph variants. Without a fallback font that covers Tangut, it may appear as a box or blank space.

That changes the display, not the character’s identity. When sent as text, it remains the same code point between apps; a Tangut-capable font is needed to see its glyph.