Xixia script, also known as Hexi script, Fanwen and Tanggute script, is a script that records the language of the Dangxiang people in Xixia. It belongs to the ideographic system and the Qiang branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. The language of the Xixia people has been lost and is most closely related to the modern Qiang and Muya languages. In the first year of Daqing before Emperor Jingzong of Western Xia, Li Yuanhao, ordered minister Yeli Renrong to create it. It took three years to complete, and contains more than 5,000 characters. The shape is square, the strokes are complex, and the structure imitates Chinese characters.
It was popular for about two centuries in the vast geographical area of ??present-day Ningxia, Gansu, northern Shaanxi, and southern Inner Mongolia under the jurisdiction of the Xixia Dynasty. During the Yuan and Ming dynasties, it was still circulated in some areas for about three centuries. Li Fanwen, an expert on Xixia writing, believes that the total number of Xixia characters is 5,917, but in fact there are only 5,857 meaningful characters.
Xixia script is "square in shape, eight points in class, and the writing is quite repetitive". It is a brand new square script independent of Chinese characters. At first glance, it looks similar to Chinese characters because it imitates Chinese characters. The character construction method is re-created by borrowing the basic strokes of Chinese characters. Its basic strokes also have the same dots, horizontal, vertical, apostrophe, nip, left turn, and right lift as those of Chinese characters, but there are no vertical hooks that are common in Chinese characters, and more oblique strokes such as oblique strokes are used. Due to the large number of strokes and the complex structure, most numbers are more than ten strokes long, which makes it difficult to recognize and write. Even the simplest numbers in Chinese characters have quite complicated strokes in Xixia writing.
The Xixia script is modeled after Chinese characters. Chinese calligraphy has five calligraphy styles: seal, Li, Zhen, Xing and Cao. The real calligraphy is regular script. Four calligraphy styles of seal, regular script, running script and cursive script have been found in the Xixia literature handed down from ancient times, but no official script has been found. When discussing the relationship between Xixia script and Chinese script, Dangxiang people also said: "Discussing the end points are different, but examining the root points are the same." ***Same characteristics
1. Both belong to the ideographic writing system;
2. The shapes are similar and square;
3. The methods of forming characters are similar;
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4. Certain shapes have stroke variations in different parts;
5. All have regular script, running script, cursive script, and seal script;
6. Some characters Influenced by the ruler's nationalistic views.
Differences
1. There are very few characters in Xixia script with less than five strokes and more than twenty strokes, and they appear relatively even;
2. Xixia script has oblique strokes There are more, that is, there are more apostrophes and backstrokes;
3. Tangut has more ideographic characters than Chinese, and Chinese has more pictophonetic characters than Tangut;
4. Fanqie is similar to Pinyin composition. The synthesis method of upper and lower characters has become a system;
5. Xixia generally omits shapes and sounds when constructing characters, while Chinese characters are an isolated phenomenon;
6. Xixia pictograms and referents There are very few words for things, and the ideographic part of the words does not represent the physical form.