You Collection, Middle Volume Radical: Bean (dòu) Character: Shi Kangxi strokes: 11 Page 1191, Entry 23 Pronounced shi. Same as the other character. Shuowen Jiezi (Dictionary of Explaining Graphs and Analyzing Characters) states: Preserved beans mixed with salt. Xu states: Shu means bean. You means prepared in the dark. Shiming (Exposition of Names) states: Shi means to crave. When five flavors are harmonized, one must have this to complete them so that they become savory and craved. Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji), Biography of Money Makers: One thousand units of salted beans. Book of Han (Hanshu), Treatise on Food and Money: Fan Shaoweng of Chang'an sold fermented beans, known as Fan the Fermented Bean Seller. Also, grass beans. Compendium of Materia Medica (Bencao Gangmu): Grows in various countries of Brazil, the grass resembles chives, and the beans emerge from the flowers. People there eat them. Also, bean insect. Ge Hong, Handbook of Prescriptions for Emergencies (Zhouhou Fang): This insect is pitch black like a large bean, floating on the water. It treats the poison of the archery-artillery insect that causes sores and the inability to speak. By keeping one mother bean insect in the mouth, one will be healed. Leipian (Classified Dictionary): Sometimes written in a variant form.