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1. Scale and Value: Small, minute, trifling, or insignificant.

2. Perception and Depth: Subtle or refined; used in philosophical or technical contexts to denote things difficult to perceive due to complexity (e.g., a profound truth).

3. Social Status: Lowly, humble, or of modest rank; used as a marker of humility regarding the self or one's position.

Can function as a conditional negative meaning "if not for..." or "but for...", typically when positioned at the start of a clause (often in conjunction with 則).

Tang-period reading: *miəi (Fanqie: 無非). Graphically similar to characters such as 薇 (fern) and 娓 (fluent speech), though these are distinct lexical items.

If the syntax of a passage appears to be missing a negation or a causal link, test the conditional negative reading ("if not for...") first.