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The character 疠 (lì), with its traditional form 癘, refers to severe, contagious diseases or malignant sores affecting large populations. It is a phono-semantic compound, combining the sickness radical 疒 (chuáng), which visually encloses the inner part to indicate illness, with the phonetic element 万 (wàn) in the simplified version or 萬 (wàn) in the traditional. While 万 and 萊 mean "ten thousand" independently, here they only provide the pronunciation. The character consistently conveys ideas of widespread, uncontrolled epidemic or miasma, often appearing in classical medical texts and historical records as part of terms describing major health crises.
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