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蓍 is a phono-semantic compound character: the upper part is the grass radical 艹, which marks it as a plant, and the lower part is 耆 (qí), providing the sound. It refers to the yarrow plant (also called milfoil), a perennial herb. The dried stalks of this plant were historically used as the principal means of divination in the I Ching, or Book of Changes. Consequently, the character is tightly bound to ancient fortune-telling and philosophical rites, and it is almost never encountered in general botanical contexts.
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