Wei Collection, Middle Volume Radical: End (er) Kangxi Strokes: 9 Page 962, Entry 02 Guangyun (broad rhymes) and Jiyun (collected rhymes) say the pronunciation is duan. Shuowen Jiezi (explanation of simple and compound characters) says it represents the end of an object just beginning to grow. The top part represents the shape of the growth, and the bottom part represents its roots. Annotation by Chen Xuan and others: The horizontal line in the middle represents the earth. Zengyun (augmented rhymes) says it is the beginning of a thing. Rites of Zhou (Zhouli), Winter Officials, Record of Artificers: If the musical stone is too low, grind its end. Shiwen (explanation of text) notes: For the character duan, some original texts use the variant form duan. Jiyun (collected rhymes) says the character duan is used interchangeably with duan. Also, Jiyun (collected rhymes) says the pronunciation is chuan. It means to pierce a musical stone. Rites of Zhou (Zhouli), Winter Officials, Record of Artificers, Shiwen (explanation of text): For the character duan, Liu also provides the pronunciation chuan. Note: In Shuowen Jiezi (explanation of simple and compound characters), the character duan constitutes its own radical, but according to Zhengzitong (correct character dictionary), it is now merged into this radical. The Yupian (jade chapters) notes this as an ancient form of the character duan. See the entry in the Stand radical, nine strokes.