Wu Collection, Lower Volume Radical: Stone (shí) Character: Fan Kangxi Stroke Count: 20 Page 838, Entry 06 According to the Extensive Rhymes (Guangyun), pronounced fan. Also according to the Collected Rhymes (Jiyun) and the Rhyme Dictionary (Yunhui), pronounced fan. Alum stone. According to the Classic of Mountains and Seas (Shanhaijing), on Nuchuang Mountain, the shady side is rich in nie stone. According to the commentary by Guo, this is alum stone. People of Chu call it nie stone, and people of Qin call it yu-nie. According to the Rhyme Dictionary (Yunhui), it is also known as yu-ze, and there are five varieties: blue, white, yellow, black, and scarlet. Also refers to mountain alum (shan-fan), a type of flower. According to the Zhengzitong, it is colloquially called ding flower. The tree grows several feet tall with dense leaves and thick branches; it does not wither in winter, and the flowers are white and fragrant. It is also known as chang flower. Huang Tingjian stated: In the wilderness of Jiangnan, the local people gather the leaves of the ding flower and burn them to make ash, which they use to dye purple into a dark color, achieving this without the aid of alum. Thus, it was renamed mountain alum. The Rhyme Dictionary (Yunhui) mistakenly calls it zheng flower and claims it is the jade-stamen flower of the Tang dynasty, which is incorrect.