Wei Collection, Middle Volume Radical: Silk (mì) Page 916, Entry 09 Pronounced hong. Shuowen Jiezi (Explaining Graphs and Analyzing Characters): Red silk. Shi Ming (Explanation of Names): Red, meaning deep crimson. A white color resembling deep crimson. Analects (Lunyu): One does not use deep red or purple for casual clothing. Commentary: Red is an intermediate color of the south. Also a place name. Zuo Zhuan (Zuo Commentary): A great military review took place at Hong. Annotation: Hong is a place in the state of Lu. Also a plant name. Erya (Approaching Elegance): The plant known as hong is called longgu. Annotation: Commonly called longgu grass, a phonetic shift. Pronounced gong. Interchangeable with gong (merit/work). Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji): Wear deep mourning for fifteen days, light mourning for fourteen days. Annotation: Fu Qian states that this refers to great merit and small merit. Also interchangeable with gong (work). Book of Han (Hanshu): The textile worker leaves the loom. Annotation: Yan Shigu states that hong is read as gong. Pronounced jiang. A variant form of jiang (deep red). Book of Han (Hanshu): During the reign of Emperor Ping, among the twenty-two individuals, there was the Marquis of Hong. Annotation: Yan Shigu states that the character hong should likely be jiang. Liu Ban states that there is currently a Hong County, pronounced jiang. Hong also possesses the pronunciation jiang.