Wu Collection, Lower Volume Radical: Spirit (shì) Dao Kangxi strokes: 13 Page 844, Entry 11 Pronounced dao (rising tone) Synonymous with prayer (dao). Shuowen Jiezi (Explanation of Simple and Compound Characters): Prayer involving the sacrifice of livestock and horses. Rites of Zhou (Zhouli), Spring Officials: The Field Invocation Officer manages the prayer and invocation for livestock and horses, overseeing all related ceremonial shouts and titles. Commentary: Du Zichun states: Dao is prayer. One prays for horses to be without illness, and prays for fields to ensure a bountiful catch of animals. Book of Odes (Shijing), Lesser Odes: Already addressed the Bo (equine ancestor) and already prayed. Sub-commentary: Bo is the equine ancestor, the spirit of the celestial stallion and the room constellation. One prays to the equine ancestor for the sake of the fields, seeking strength and health for the horses. Note: Du's interpretation of the Book of Odes sub-commentary treats the prayer for livestock and horses as a single event involving horse sacrifice. Zheng Kangcheng, in his commentary on the Rites of Zhou, does not accept Du's interpretation; he suggests that the character should be read like the character for punishment, referring to a term meaning large or robust. He argues it is a sacrifice to ensure livestock are fat and horses are healthy and strong. According to this view, the character only explains the state of being fat and large, lacking the meaning of prayer, and thus the prayer for livestock and horses becomes two separate events, which differs greatly from Du's view. The Collected Rhymes (Jiyun) and the Rhyme Collection (Yunhui) support Zheng's view, pronouncing it zhu, but they only explain it as a request for livestock to be fat, omitting the mention of the horse sacrifice entirely, which is difficult to explain. Also, according to the Collected Rhymes (Jiyun), pronounced dao (falling tone), with the same meaning. Sometimes written in a variant form.