Wei Collection, Upper Volume Radical: Rice (mǐ) 粉 Kangxi strokes: 10 Page 907, Entry 16 Guangyun: Pronounced fěn (rising tone) Jiyun, Yunhui, Zhengyun: Pronounced fěn (rising tone) Pianhai: Rice flour. Shiming: To divide. To grind rice until it is scattered and separated. Rites of Zhou (Zhouli), Offices of Heaven: The contents of the bamboo offering vessels, including dried grain cakes and powdered rice cakes. Commentary: This refers to bean flour. Shuowen: That which is applied to the face. Yunhui: In ancient times, rice flour was also used to coat the face. Later, lead was burned to create face powder. Bowuzhi: Burning lead creates white lead powder (hufen). Shiming: White lead powder (hufen) is thick and pasty; fats are mixed with it to apply to the face. Zhengyun: Applying color to moisturize and decorate is called powdering (fenze). Calcining stone to make white lime, used for painting walls, is called white-washing (fen). Poem by Bai Juyi: Entering the Wenchang office, everything is brilliant; purple boundaries and golden walls, within the white-washed halls. Commentary: The Secretariat (Shangshu Sheng) uses white-washed walls to depict ancient sages and heroes, hence it is called the Painted Bureau or the Powdered Bureau. Shiwen Leiju: The sea-powder mother is shaped like a cuttlefish, three or four inches long. It is kept in the house during winter and planted in the seaside fields in spring. Its color is green like a lotus seed pod; sea-powder is what it excretes. Others say that bamboo branches are inserted into the fields, and the mother climbs the branches to secrete and form the powder. Zhengzitong: Anything ground into fine particles is called powder. Powder is a general term and does not refer solely to rice. A type of bamboo. Minbu Shu: Powder bamboo and spring silk are materials for making high-quality paper, superior to the white ramie of the Jiangnan region. Place name. Commentary on the Water Classic (Shuijing Zhu): The Du River originates from Shangfen County. Commentary: Meng Da served as governor and governed Fangling; therefore, there is a Powder River (Fenshui) in the old county, and because the county is located above it, it is called Shangfen. Since this water is used to soak the powder to make it bright, white, and clean, both the county and the river derive their names from this. Jiyun: Pronounced fèn (falling tone). To spread. To decorate. Zihui Bu: Powder (fen), white decoration. When used as a verb to apply, it takes the rising tone. That which is used to apply to objects is called powder (fen), taking the falling tone. The Dictionary of Characters (Zihui) lists it as fěn (rising tone), which is incorrect.