About
The character 芍 combines the grass radical 艹, a common semantic component for plant-related terms, with the phonetic component 勺 (sháo), meaning "spoon", which also provides its pronunciation. It is primarily used in botanical contexts, most notably in 芍药 (sháoyào), the Chinese peony. This herbaceous plant is valued ornamentally and medicinally, with its roots traditionally harvested and processed into white or red variants for treating various ailments.
Etymology Hide
