Tangut Character 187A7

“Upright” is the dictionary gloss. Li Fanwen’s Tangut dictionary indexes 𘞧 as L2008-5637 and glosses it “upright,” meaning a straight or principled quality. It is a word, not a picture of someone standing; the character’s inventory label does not translate it.

The Tangut script was created in 1036–1037 and promoted as a state script. It served official records, literature, translations, and teaching in Tangut alongside Chinese. The earliest surviving Tangut document is an official message from 1072, which gives an early documentary setting for the script, not a personal origin story for 𘞧.

After Tangut left daily use, surviving texts included Buddhist scriptures, translations from Chinese and Tibetan, encyclopedias, military works, and literature. Today readers meet 𘞧 in dictionary work, manuscript study, and digital text.

Why does Tangut look Chinese?

Tangut borrows a Chinese-style look but writes another language. Its characters use brush strokes and square structures familiar from Chinese writing, but they write the Tangut language in a distinct script. Khitan script-making is a historical comparison: both were promoted by states for their languages, but a direct graphic relationship between the scripts remains debated.