Definitions
Thea sinensis
Etymology
About
The character 荈 is a phono-semantic compound with the grass radical 艹 (cǎo) at the top, indicating a plant-related meaning, and the phonetic component 舛 (chuǎn) below, which provides its pronunciation. It was created to denote a specific agricultural product: the old, coarse, or late-picked leaves of the tea plant, distinguishing them from tender, early spring tea buds. Due to this precise focus on tea-leaf classification by harvest time and quality, the character serves as a specialized term in historical agricultural texts and classical literature on tea cultivation.