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The character 洫 (xù) consists of the water radical 氵 (shuǐ) on the left and the phonetic 血 (xuè, 'blood') on the right. Although blood provides the sound, it carries no semantic weight. The graph denotes man-made ditches, drainage channels, or small moats used for irrigation. In ancient times, it was a key term for water management systems essential to farming and field division, appearing in texts on land management, agricultural engineering, and infrastructure. Its definition strictly references these physical water channels, never extending to abstract aquatic metaphors.
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