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痧 (shā) refers to acute illnesses that present with small, sand-like skin eruptions, such as heatstroke, cholera, and measles. It is a phono-semantic compound: the radical 疒 (chuáng) signals sickness, while the component 沙 (shā, "sand") serves a dual role, providing the pronunciation and visually evoking the granular rash. Over time, the character's meaning broadened to include sudden heat-related syndromes in traditional Chinese medicine, giving rise to therapies like guasha (刮痧), where the skin is scraped to raise sand-like petechiae and release heat or illness.
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