Hai Collection, Middle Volume
Radical: Bird (niǎo)
Kangxi strokes: 29
Page 1504, Entry 39
Pronounced guan. A water bird. It is fond of water and calls when rain is about to fall. The Classic of Birds (Qin Jing) states that when a stork tilts its head back and calls, the sky will clear; when it lowers its head to call, the weather will turn cloudy. It is further said that a stork produces three chicks, one of which will become a crane. When the Xun trigram develops to its extreme, it becomes the Zhen trigram; yin transforms into yang; the Zhen trigram represents the crane, and the Xun trigram represents the stork.
Tao Hongjing's commentary on the Materia Medica (Bencao) notes: It has no red on its head and no black bands on its neck. Its body resembles a crane. It is not skilled at loud vocalizations and produces sound only by clicking its beak. There are two types of storks: the white stork, which resembles a swan and builds nests in trees, and the black stork, which has a curved neck. Lu Ji states: The stork is like a wild goose but larger in size. Other names include fufu (pot-carrier), heikao (black-rump), and beizao (stove-carrier). They build nests with mud and create pools beside them, filling them with water and placing fish inside to feed their young.
Book of Odes (Shijing), Bin Odes (Binfeng): The stork calls upon the ant mound. Sometimes also written in a variant form (guan).
Book of the Later Han (Hou Hanshu), Biography of Yang Zhen: A stork held three eels in its beak and placed them before the lecture hall. Commentary: The character guan is pronounced guan, and it refers to the stork.
Pronounced huan. Er Ya, Explanation of Birds: Guanwu, is also called feisu. Commentary: Guan is pronounced huan.
Pronounced guan. A water bird.
Pronounced huan. The meaning is the same.
Pronounced quan. The same as the character qu. Quyu (mynah bird), also written as guanyu. Zuo Commentary (Zuo Zhuan), 25th Year of Duke Zhao: Mynahs came to build nests. Gongyang Commentary (Gongyang Zhuan) writes this as guan, pronounced quan.
Small Supplement to the Rhyme Compendium (Yunhui Xiaobu): The character qu was originally written as a variant form. It refers to the mynah bird.