Tangutology

Tangutology or Tangut studies is the study of the culture, history, art and language of the ancient Tangut people, especially as seen through the study of contemporary documents written by the Tangut people themselves. As the Tanguts spoke an extinct language written in a unique and complex script, the cornerstone of Tangut studies has been the study of the Tangut language and the decipherment of the Tangut script.

The Tangut people founded the Western Xia state (1038–1227) in northwestern China, which was eventually overthrown by the Mongols. The Tangut script, which was devised in 1036, was widely used in printed books and on monumental inscriptions during the Western Xia period, as well as during the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368), but the language became extinct sometime during the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644). The latest known example of Tangut writing are Buddhist inscriptions dated 1502 on two dharani pillars from a temple in Baoding, Hebei. By the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911) all knowledge of the Tangut language and script had been lost, and no examples or descriptions of the Tangut script had been preserved in any surviving Chinese books from the Song, Yuan or Ming dynasties. It was not until the 19th century that the Tangut language and script was rediscovered.

The earliest modern identification of the Tangut script occurred in 1804, when a Chinese scholar called Zhang Shu (Chinese: 张澍; pinyin: Zhāng Shù, 1781–1847) observed that the Chinese text of a Chinese-Tangut bilingual inscription on a stupa at the Huguo Temple (護國寺) in Wuwei, Gansu had a Western Xia era name, and so concluded that the corresponding inscription in an unknown script must be the native Western Xia script; and hence the unknown writing in the same style on the Cloud Platform at Juyongguan at the Great Wall of China north of Beijing must also be the Tangut script.

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