Khitan large script
One of Aisin-Gioro Ulhicun's contributions to the study of Jurchen has been the identification of the Jurchen small script. According to the "History of the Jin Dynasty" there were two different Jurchen scripts: a "large script" that was devised in 1120 by command of Wanyan Aguda, the first emperor of the Jin Dynasty; and a "small script" that was created in 1138 by the Emperor Xizong (r. 1135–1150), but which was first officially used in 1145. It is presumed that the Jurchen large script was modelled on the Khitan large script, and the Jurchen small script was modelled on the Khitan small script, but all the extant examples of Jurchen writing, including the "Sino-Jurchen Vocabulary of the Bureau of Interpreters" ("Nǚzhēn Yìyǔ" 女真譯語) and monumental inscriptions, are written in basically the same script, which is similar in form to the Khitan large script. During the 1970s a number of gold and silver "paiza" were unearthed in China; these all had the same inscription which was assumed to be written in the Khitan small script. She has analysed the inscription on these "paiza", and although the structure of the characters is identical to the Khitan small script she concludes that the script is not actually the Khitan small script but is in fact the otherwise unattested Jurchen small script. She argues that this small script was only used briefly during the last five years of the reign of its creator, Emperor Xizong, and when he was murdered in a coup d'état the small script fell out of use as it was less convenient to use than the earlier large script.