List of Tangut books
Title Copies Notes
Pearl in the Palm 𗼇𘂜𗟲𗿳𗖵𘃎𘇂𗊏 ( Chinese : 番漢合時掌中珠 ; pinyin : Fān-Hàn Héshí Zhǎngzhōngzhū ) IOM Tang.13 ( several printings of two xylograph editions ) Bilingual Chinese-Tangut glossary with pronunciations of Chinese words in Tangut characters and pronunciations of Tangut words in Chinese characters
Sea of Writing 𘝞𗗚 ( Chinese : 文海 ; pinyin : Wénhǎi ) IOM Tang.14 and Tang.15 ( xylograph edition ) Monolingual Tangut rime dictionary , comprising one volume of level tone characters , one ( now lost ) volume of rising tone characters , and one volume of mixed category characters
Precious Rhymes of the Sea of Characters 𘝞𗗚𘏨𗖵 ( Chinese : 文海寶韻 ; pinyin : Wénhǎi Bǎoyùn ) IOM ( manuscript copy ) Manuscript copy of an edition of the Sea of Characters rime dictionary ( different from the printed edition )
Homophones 𗙏𘙰 ( Chinese : 同音 ; pinyin : Tóngyīn ) IOM Tang.18 ( several printings of 2 xylograph editions ) Phonological text that lists Tangut characters that are homophones of each other
Combined Edition of Homophones and Sea of Characters ( Chinese : 同音文海寶韻合編 ; pinyin : Tóngyīn Wénhǎi Bǎoyùn Hébiān ) IOM ( manuscript copies ) British Library Or.12380/2484 , Or.12380/3907 , Or.12380/3908 ( manuscript fragments ) Combined edition of the Homophones and the Sea of Characters
Synonyms 𗧘𘙰 ( Chinese : 同義 ; pinyin : Tóngyì ) IOM Tang.24 ( one nearly complete manuscript copy and one partial manuscript copy ) Ningxia Institute of Archaeology , Ningxia K2:157 , K2:286 ( two fragments of a woodblock printed edition ) List of Tangut words ordered according to synonym groups
Essential Selection of Often Transmitted Homonyms and Mixed Characters 𘄴𘏲𗏹𘈧𗦻𘙰𗏇𘉅 ( Chinese : 擇要常傳同名雜字 ; pinyin : Zéyào Chángchuán Tóngmíng Zázì ) Private ownership List of Tangut characters ordered according to homonym groups
Dissected Rhymes of the Five Sounds 𗏁𗙏𘈖𗖵 ( Chinese : 五音切韻 ; pinyin : Wǔyīn Qiēyùn ) IOM Tang.22 ( 5 manuscript copies ) Phonological text that gives tables of fanqie pronunciations for Tangut characters
Miscellaneous Characters 𗏇𘉅 ( Chinese : 雜字 ; pinyin : Zázì ) IOM Tang.19 ( xylograph edition ) Classified lists of Tangut words
Newly Collected Grains of Gold or Golden Guide 𗵒𗭧𘃎𘐏𘝞 ( Chinese : 碎金置掌文 ; pinyin : Suìjīn Zhìzhǎngwén ) IOM Tang.30 ( manuscript copy ) British Library Or.12380/2581 ( manuscript fragment ) Poem comprising 200 five-character lines , in total 1,000 Tangut characters , each used a single time only ; intended for use as a primer for teaching Tangut characters , in the same way that the Thousand Character Classic ( 千字文 ) was used to teach Chinese characters
Dictionaries and philological works
This list of Tangut books comprises a list of manuscript and xylograph texts that are written in the extinct Tangut language and Tangut script. These texts were mostly produced within the Western Xia state (1038-1227) during the 12th and 13th centuries, and include Buddhist sutras and explanatory texts, dictionaries and other philological texts, as well as translations of Chinese books and some original Tangut texts. Some Tangut texts, particularly Buddhist sutras, continued to be produced during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), after the fall of the Western Xia state, but the Tangut language became extinct sometime during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), and Tangut literature was only rediscovered in the early 20th century. Most of the books listed here were discovered hidden in a stupa outside the city walls of the abandoned Western Xia fortress city of Khara-Khoto in Gansu by Pyotr Kuzmich Kozlov during his expedition of 1907-1909. A lesser number of texts (mostly fragments) were recovered from Khara-Khoto by Aurel Stein during his expedition of 1913-1916. A large number of complete and fragmentary Tangut texts have also been discovered at various sites in Inner Mongolia, Ningxia and Gansu in China during the 20th and 21st centuries.