萑

A specific type of grass, reed, or rush characterized by its tensile strength and flexibility for use as weaving material. "Mat-rush" or "weaving-reed" is generally more precise than the general term "grass."

Often appears as the object of verbs indicating harvest or labor (e.g., 采 "gather" or 刈 "cut"). In compounds such as 萑席, it acts as a modifier specifying the material of the mat. May function metonymically to refer to the finished mat itself.

Distinguish from other botanical terms to preserve material specificity: 茅 (thatch grass for roofing/insulation), 葦 (general reeds), and 菅 (sedge, often associated with ritual or poetic contexts of humility).

The glyph features a double-marking of its botanical nature (the 艹 radical appears both at the top and within the phonetic component). In early scripts, this structure typically signals a specific usable plant species rather than generic wild growth.