diff --git a/doc/langref.html.in b/doc/langref.html.in
index 19f9d832298ea89faf70d0d8dc2033abc99f400f..090dd48232d136d5a830945942deeeddcc98c4a2 100644
--- a/doc/langref.html.in
+++ b/doc/langref.html.in
@@ -755,12 +755,21 @@
         </tr>
         <tr>
             <th scope="row"><code>\u{NNNNNN}</code></th>
-          <td>hexadecimal Unicode scalar value UTF-8 encoded (1 or more digits)</td>
+          <td>hexadecimal Unicode code point (1 or more digits)</td>
         </tr>
         </tbody>
       </table>
       </div>
-      <p>Note that the maximum valid Unicode scalar value is {#syntax#}0x10ffff{#endsyntax#}.</p>
+      <p>
+      Note that the highest Unicode code point is {#syntax#}0x10ffff{#endsyntax#}. Character
+      literals are integers ({#syntax#}'A'{#endsyntax#} = {#syntax#}65{#endsyntax#} and 
+      {#syntax#}'\u{10000}'{#endsyntax#} = {#syntax#}0x10000{#endsyntax#} = {#syntax#}65536{#endsyntax#}),
+      and <code>\u</code> escapes in string literals are encoded as UTF-8
+      ({#syntax#}"A"{#endsyntax#} = {#syntax#}"\u{41}"{#endsyntax#} = {#syntax#}"\x41"{#endsyntax#}
+      and {#syntax#}"\u{10000}"{#endsyntax#} = {#syntax#}"\xF0\x90\x80\x80"{#endsyntax#}).
+      <code>\u</code> escapes can be used for surrogate code points, which are not Unicode
+      scalar values or technically allowed in UTF-8 as defined by the Unicode standard, but can be useful in practice.
+      </p>
       {#header_close#}
       {#header_open|Multiline String Literals#}
       <p>
diff --git a/lib/compiler/Maker/Package/Manifest.zig b/lib/compiler/Maker/Package/Manifest.zig
index 517c5fd3239077e2f5cf324d4667648e5417ebc3..7dd507a20c8ce9836b04ba2d8e4822e569ef5e91 100644
--- a/lib/compiler/Maker/Package/Manifest.zig
+++ b/lib/compiler/Maker/Package/Manifest.zig
@@ -544,7 +544,7 @@ const Parse = struct {
                 try p.appendErrorOff(
                     token,
                     offset + @as(u32, @intCast(bad_index)),
-                    "unicode escape does not correspond to a valid unicode scalar value",
+                    "unicode escape does not correspond to a unicode code point",
                     .{},
                 );
             },
diff --git a/lib/std/zig/string_literal.zig b/lib/std/zig/string_literal.zig
index 3699636c7965aa2c7cad9389bfc51d5eaa636faa..c51c2ab77c62faf84057d25f2739e37ece9fd0d6 100644
--- a/lib/std/zig/string_literal.zig
+++ b/lib/std/zig/string_literal.zig
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 const std = @import("../std.zig");
 const assert = std.debug.assert;
-const utf8Encode = std.unicode.utf8Encode;
 const Writer = std.Io.Writer;
 
 pub const ParseError = error{
@@ -63,7 +62,7 @@ pub const Error = union(enum) {
                 .{self.raw_string[bad_index]},
             ),
             .invalid_unicode_codepoint => try writer.writeAll(
-                "unicode escape does not correspond to a valid unicode scalar value",
+                "unicode escape does not correspond to a unicode code point",
             ),
             .expected_lbrace => |bad_index| try writer.print(
                 "expected '{{', found '{c}'",
@@ -334,8 +333,8 @@ pub fn parseWrite(writer: *Writer, bytes: []const u8) Writer.Error!Result {
                     .success => |codepoint| {
                         if (bytes[escape_char_index] == 'u') {
                             var buf: [4]u8 = undefined;
-                            const len = utf8Encode(codepoint, &buf) catch {
-                                return .{ .failure = .{ .invalid_unicode_codepoint = escape_char_index + 1 } };
+                            const len = std.unicode.wtf8Encode(codepoint, &buf) catch |err| switch (err) {
+                                error.CodepointTooLarge => unreachable, // Checked in `parseEscapeSequence`.
                             };
                             try writer.writeAll(buf[0..len]);
                         } else {
@@ -383,6 +382,7 @@ test parseAlloc {
     try expect(eql(u8, "\x12foo", try parseAlloc(alloc, "\"\\x12foo\"")));
     try expect(eql(u8, "bytes\u{1234}foo", try parseAlloc(alloc, "\"bytes\\u{1234}foo\"")));
     try expect(eql(u8, "foo", try parseAlloc(alloc, "\"foo\"")));
-    try expect(eql(u8, "foo", try parseAlloc(alloc, "\"f\x6f\x6f\"")));
-    try expect(eql(u8, "f💯", try parseAlloc(alloc, "\"f\u{1f4af}\"")));
+    try expect(eql(u8, "foo", try parseAlloc(alloc, "\"f\\x6f\\x6f\"")));
+    try expect(eql(u8, "f💯", try parseAlloc(alloc, "\"f\\u{1f4af}\"")));
+    try expect(eql(u8, "\xed\xa0\x80", try parseAlloc(alloc, "\"\\u{d800}\"")));
 }