Whole glyph appears to be a river channel flooding its banks, or many layers of silt deposited one above the others. In China, they don't call the Yellow River 'yellow' for no reason—the waters are full of yellow loess, finer than silt, settling into layers of YELLOW CLAY that STIFLES and SMOTHERS SURROUNDINGS. Chinese civilization originated in the Yellow River basin, called 'the Mother River':「The Yellow River is…the birthplace [仅, person's crotch] of ancient Chinese civilizations and the most prosperous region in early Chinese history. However, frequent devastating floods and course changes produced by the continual elevation of the river bed, sometimes above the level of its surrounding fields has also earned it the unenviable names 'China's Sorrow' and 'Scourge of the Sons of Han…'
　…The epithet 'yellow' describes the perennial color of the muddy water in the lower course of the river, arising from loess being carried downstream.
　…Prior to the advent of modern dams in China, the Yellow River was extremely prone to flooding. In the 2,540 years prior to AD 1946, the Yellow River has been reckoned to have flooded 1,593 times, shifting its course 26 times noticeably and nine times severely. These floods include some of the deadliest natural disasters ever recorded. Before modern disaster management, when floods occurred, some of the population might initially die from drowning but then many more would suffer from the ensuing famine and spread of diseases.
　…The cause of the floods is the large amount of fine-grained loess carried by the river from the Loess Plateau, which is continuously deposited along the bottom of its channel. The sedimentation causes natural dams to slowly accrue. These subaqueous dams were unpredictable and generally undetectable.
　…The 1887 flood has been estimated to have killed between 900,000 and 2,000,000. …The 1931 flood killed an estimated 1,000,000 to 4,000,000, and is the worst natural disaster recorded (excluding famines and epidemics).」
　　[　https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_River 2013-02-09　]　
　The sages bore little regard for the common person in China. Glyph is formerly depicting an ostensibly lower class of humans not knowing their roots or lineage (peasants, serfs) and their characteristically nearly unstoppable method of propagating. Meaning YELLOW SOIL, CLAY, a reference to a smothering, stifling flow of yellow since not much can grow in a layer of impermeable clay, and once it settles it is very difficult to remove, STIFLING, SMOTHERING WHAT IS BESIDE via a spreading river system.「Commoners, bastards」who cannot determine their origins the same as the spreading yellow clay deposits, a reference to ancient human lineage in China (the「commoners」at least), and the same glyph was used by the sages as a reference for China possibly due to its burgeoning population that crowds out neighbors. Chinese folks also settle densely among other societies, creating so-called Chinatowns that de facto permit no other culture. This pictograph also included the「middle, vulva, two-sided」element at its core, a glyph that today represents Mother China (among other euphemisms).
　Glyph possibly the source of the English idioms TOUGH SHIT and SHIT OUT-OF-LUCK abbreviated as S.O.L., and the term YELLOW-SKINNED using elements of yellow loam clay and treated skin. And note that there are many varieties of yellow violets (the flowering plant), although that does seem to be a contradiction in terms.

Modern definitions (that generally disregard history) …excluding politically incorrect concepts and other meanings deemed offensive today; may list only pigeonholed definitions, euphemisms, or meaningless mnemonics)
Chinese: clay; old variant of 僅|仅; violet (plant)
Unihan extended: yellow loam; clay; season; few