Appendix Chou Collection, Middle Volume Radical: Scholar (shì) Character: ke Kangxi stroke count: 12 Page 586, Entry 01 Supplement to the Dictionary (Zihui bu): An abbreviated form of the character ke (shell). In the preface to the collection by Feng Zhonghao: The reason humans have life is due to the physical shell (quke). The middle part of the character ke is composed of the character yi and the character ji. This character is the same as ke (shell).