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The character 茈 is crowned with the grass radical 艹, placing it in the botanical realm of plants and herbs. Below, the element 此, which means "this", acts solely as a phonetic indicator, giving the character two pronunciations that depend on context: zǐ and cí. As zǐ, it names the gromwell plant, valued in ancient China for the purple dye it provided for traditional textiles. As cí, the character departs from botany entirely and functions as a proper noun, designating a river or a specific location found in old texts.
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