The clay figurines in the museum are vivid and true to life.
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history
Lives almost entirely in 栩栩如生 ('vivid, lifelike'). The phrase comes from Zhuangzi's butterfly dream, where he flutters 栩栩然 ('happily, vividly') as a butterfly, unsure on waking if he is a man or a butterfly.
The tree radical on the left points to the original meaning, a species of oak. The familiar 'lifelike' sense is a later borrowing of the sound, unrelated to trees.
