The story of 粹

pure, essence

粹 is composed of 米(rice) and 卒(the picture of a clothes with a cross marking on the end of its Chinese style collar, means 'the end' or 'small'). Ancient Chinese used sifter to sift out the sands and shells from their cereals, also, a Chinese style collar is V shape, so 卒 has the meaning of 'sieving', 粹 is the sifted(卒) rice(米), it is 'pure' and 'the best'.