Modern form looks like bamboo (竹) + die young (夭) — “laughing yourself to death.” But the original character was actually teeth (齒) + dog (犬): a dog baring its teeth. Scribes kept miscopying it over centuries until we got the accidental masterpiece we have today. A Tang dynasty scholar later reinterpreted it as “bamboo swaying in the wind looks like someone laughing” — and the poet Su Shi coined 竹笑 for bamboo dancing in a breeze.