Xu Collection, Lower Volume Radical: Food (shí) Character: ji Kangxi stroke count: 21 Page 1425, Entry 35 Ancient form. According to the Essential Compilation (Yupian), pronounced ji. According to the Explaining Graphs and Analyzing Characters (Shuowen), when crops do not ripen, it is called famine. Composed of the radical for food and the phonetic element ji. For further details, see the note for the character meaning hungry.