The story of 夭

tender, die

夭 is the picture of a laughing man dancing with joy. Youths are energetic, when they are happy, they cannot help laughing and dancing with joy, so夭 has the meaning of youth and happiness, but such meaning has been replaced by妖 and笑. 夭 is used to describe the flourish of plants, in Book of Songs(詩經), it has ‘桃之夭夭(How flourish the peach blossoms are)’, but such meaning has been replaced by沃. On the other hand, both youth and happiness gone fast, 夭 is also used to describe someone dies young, although殀 has been made, nowadays people still like to use夭 to represent such meaning.