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Originally written 畬, the character 畲 referred to a field farmed by slash-and-burn for two or three years. The modern form combines 田 "field" as the semantic component with 佘 shé as a phonetic indicator; the traditional 畬 instead places 余 yú "extra" above 田, suggesting a surplus yield. Over time it became closely associated with a southern Chinese ethnic minority who historically practiced this mountain agriculture, and today it names the She people.
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