契丹大字
A relatively large number of memorial inscriptions written in both the Khitan large script and the Khitan small script are known, but there are no surviving printed books in either Khitan script, and no Chinese glossaries of the Khitan language. Until recently, the only known examples of Khitan text not inscribed on stone or portable artefacts were five Khitan large script characters recorded by Wang Yi 王易, who was sent as an envoy to the Khitans in 1058, and which are reproduced in a mid 14th century book on calligraphy written by Tao Zongyi 陶宗儀. In 2002 a small fragment of a Khitan manuscript with seven Khitan large characters and interlinear glosses in Old Uyghur was identified in the collection of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Nova N 176 is therefore the only known example of a full-length manuscript text written in the Khitan language (in either of the two Khitan scripts) to have survived to the present day.